Big bottle drive to benefit Central Okanagan Food Bank

With bottle recycling depots having just recently reopened, chances are you’ve been watching your pile of empties growing in the garage.

An Okanagan real estate company is hoping to capitalize on all of those empties with a bottle drive for a good cause.

“People are wanting to get them out of their garage, and nobody really wants to go down to the bottle depot and sort themselves, so it’s a great win-win for everybody right now,” said Jerry Redmond, one of the owners of Remax Kelowna and Kelowna Westside.

“They can clean out their garage and we get to raise a bunch of money for the food bank.”

The bottle drive will take place on Saturday, May 23, and will benefit the Central Okanagan Food Bank.

“We’d love to be able to raise $5,000, $10,000 for the food bank if we could,” Redmond told Global News.

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“We all make a living in this community and we all feel it’s really important to give back to this community.”

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The bottle fundraiser comes at a time when food banks are seeing a record number of clients accessing services due to pandemic-related job losses.

Drop-off locations include Trinity Church on Springfield Road in Kelowna and the Remax Kelowna-Westside office on Louie Drive.

It’s preferred that bottles being dropped off are in plastic bags, but it’s not required.

“We are going to be practicing social distancing and the whole nine yards,” Redmond said. “Everyone will have masks on, gloves on and adhering to the policies of everything going on right now.”

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Pick-up service is also available but you must let Remax know you need pick-up by 3 p.m. on Friday by emailing remaxbottledrive@kelowna.remax.ca.

If you don’t have any bottles to donate but would still like to help, Redmond said financial donations are welcome.

“We’re also going to take cash donations while we are there, so if you don’t have any bottles and still want to help out, drive on by,” Redmond said.

The bottle drive takes place between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.