By meadowlakeNOW

Door of Hope gears up for city-wide food drive

May 30, 2017 | 6:16 PM

Meadow Lake’s food bank and soup kitchen – Door of Hope – is gearing up for its annual food drive on Wednesday, June 7.

Demand for support seems to have spiked over the last year, and Executive Director Unita Esau said she is hopeful Meadow Lakers will display their usual generosity.  

“We only do one city-wide food bank drive in a year,” she said. “We have had a huge increase in the number of people we’ve helped over the last year. We’re not sure why that is. We definitely depend on support from our community, and the community has always stepped up to the plate and done a very fine job of donating.”

She said because the organization runs a soup kitchen, there is a use for most of the donated food. Esau said basic needs include coffee creamer, pork and beans, canned meat, fish and vegetables, as well as pasta.

“These are our most needed items, we put them in every hamper,” she said. “However, we can make use of almost anything that is donated to us, thanks to our great staff and volunteers.”

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For the last three years, those wishing to donate have been asked to place a grocery bag of non-perishable food items on their front steps by 6:30 p.m. on June 7, and staff and volunteers will come around and collect them.

“This year, we’ll have a youth group helping us,” Esau said. “We know people have a lot to do, so I think it is win-win, both for homeowners and people collecting. And we if we miss anyone, we’ll make an arrangements to get the bags picked up.”

Earlier this month, the Door of Hope soup kitchen hit its highest usage number ever, according to Esau.

“One day earlier this month, we [had] 131 folks for dinner,” she said. “Our general number is somewhere between 60 and 80 people. This is just another example of how the demand has increased.”

Last year, it was reported that the Door of Hope was having some financial trouble, but thanks to support, donations, and an increase in grants, the organization is rebounding nicely.

“We just go day by day,” Esau said. “We’re in way better shape, not to say that don’t need and appreciate constant support. We raised more money last year with our fundraiser, we’ve been able to get a lot of grants. Also, both of our grocery stores in Meadow Lake are very generous to us, as is another convenience store. Thankfully they’re very concerned and wonderful citizens of our community that are willing to pass things onto us so we can continue to operate.”

In addition to the food bank and soup kitchen, the Door of Hope runs a thrift store, and a low-income apartment building. The non-profit also donates over 600 lunches to schools in Meadow Lake every month.

kathy.gallant@jpbg.ca  

On Twitter @ReporterKath