By meadowlakeNOW

Door of Hope nets over 800 pounds of food during drive

Jun 8, 2017 | 5:58 PM

After a couple hours of collecting, sorting, and weighing donations, the staff and volunteers for the Door of Hope’s annual food drive say they are feeling positive about the preliminary numbers.

The initiative took place the evening of Wednesday, June 7.

Executive Director Unita Esau said even though the preliminary amounts are a bit down from last year’s numbers, the food drive was still a rousing success.

“We’re very pleased,” she said. “We’re down from last year, but had a few calls from people or they were either missed or they were not at home. We don’t have a final number yet, but our initial number is 800 pounds, which is a really good haul. It shows a desire for the community to be involved in whatever way they can, and that’s really positive.”

Generous Meadow Lakers left bags of non-perishable food items on at their front doors, and volunteers came by to pick them up. Esau said that all in all, it took about an hour and half to collect, and a bit more time to sort.

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“We had a great group of volunteers,” she said. “This year, there was a youth group from the Evangelical Free Church. We’ve had a mix of groups help us in the past and anyone who wants to help is always welcome to come. This year, we had enough drivers and enough young people to go throughout the community.”

She said the drive brought in many necessary items.

“We got a lot of pork and beans; those things go in every hamper,” Esau said. “We also got lots of canned meat – that particular item was up from other years. We put an emphasis on getting more canned meat, because some of the folks who come and pick up hampers live in places that don’t have any facilities such as refrigeration, maybe don’t have a can opener, so those little zip-top tins are really great.”

The annual food drive only runs once a year, and Esau said the staff and volunteers are truly thankful for the support that comes from the citizens of Meadow Lake.

“Every single can is so much appreciated,” she said. “Some people are regular givers, we get support from events, or we’ll have organizations say ‘we did a mini-food drive’ and bring in what they got from that. Thanks to the community for supporting us in the manner that they do.”

kathy.gallant@jpbg.ca  

On Twitter @ReporterKath