ESTEVAN — The Estevan Salvation Army's food bank will get a boost during the annual Canada Post Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive on Oct. 21.
Canada Post employees will circulate the community that morning to pick up donations of non-perishable food items from the front doorstep of people's homes. The food will be dropped off at the Salvation Army, where volunteers will assist in sorting, checking expiration dates and stocking shelves.
The food drive was initially scheduled for June, but had to be pushed back to the fall. Community ministries director Ronza Reynard said the food drive is coming at the perfect time, as it will be right before the busy Christmas season.
"We're excited to have another food drive," said Reynard. "The Canada Post food drive usually brings in quite a few pounds of food for the food bank, and so it helps us so much, because the food bank has been super busy this year."
Shelves are currently about half full. The Salvation Army is out purchasing food each week because of the client's needs. Some support last month replenished some of their stocks, but it likely won't last past the end of this month due to the demand.
"We're always looking for canned beans. We're always looking for canned meat. Canned meat is something we just can't seem to have enough of. We always like the Sidekicks. We like spaghetti sauce, canned fruit, things that we can have on our shelves that we can get to the people."
And like everyone else in the community, the Salvation Army has been paying more for groceries.
So far this year, the Salvation Army has had more than 2,300 visitors to the food bank, looking for assistance, compared to 1,850 a year earlier. Some of the 2,300 would be repeat clients.
"Prices are high, and if our little bit can help somebody add to what groceries they're going to go buy, and help a family or an individual or a senior, whoever is coming to ask for assistance, whether it's one time, two times or a consistent user [then that's good]," said Reynard.
At this time last year, the Salvation Army had given out 45,000 pounds of food. This year's total stands at 62,000 pounds.
"That's a huge jump in how much food is going out the door, and it takes a lot to keep those shelves full. Having a food drive like this is great, and we hope that the community can support us," said Reynard.
The food drive is an example of the community stepping up to help others.
"We need people to step up and help us with this, whether it's through a food drive, monetary donations or, right around the corner, Christmas," said Reynard.
