This year’s Thanksgiving Food Drive raised enough to supply both Langley food banks into the new year.
Hundreds of volunteers collected 27,000 pounds of donations during the one-day event held Saturday in the parking lot of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Willoughby.
Langley community coordinator Scott Friesen praised the generosity of Langley and Cloverdale residents.
“Last year, the two Langley food banks, the Langley Food Bank and the Sources Langley Food Bank, let us know that this single day event filled up both of those food banks to the end of February,” Friesen described.
“That’s nearly half a year that they were stocked because of this event.”
About 100 B.C. communities took part in the 10th annual BC Thanksgiving Food Drive .
The week before, volunteers blanketed the community, distributing bags and requesting residents to fill them with much needed food items.
They returned to collect pounds of non-perishable food collected from doorsteps in Langley and Cloverdale on Saturday.
For Langley and Cloverdale volunteers, organizers held a mini-carnival, with games, treats and a pony ride.
Friesen described it as “a thank-you to the hundreds of volunteers who go soliciting [for food donations] by dropping off bags at residents’ doors and then bring it back,” as well as an open community fair.
The BC Thanksgiving Food Drive started in the city of Burnaby in 2009 to assist the local food bank and has since expanded across the province.
The BCTFD website describes it as “a non-denominational project and is open to all interested individuals, community groups, religious organizations, businesses or others who wish to join us in helping attend to the needs of the hungry in our province.”
Last year, over 500,000 lbs of food was collected province-wide by more than 5,000 volunteers (valued at over $1 million) and was sorted and delivered to B.C. food banks.
For more information contact info@bctfooddrive.org.
READ ALSO: Sources Langley Food Bank finds new home
READ ALSO: VIDEO: Bikers back Langley Food Bank
More photos from the event can be viewed online.
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A volunteer helps unload a truck at Thanksgiving food drive. (Dan Ferguson/Langley Advance Times)
Forklift operator Victor Hatch prepares to load a truck with donations received during the annual Thanksgiving food drive Saturday in Langley. (Dan Ferguson/Langley Advance Times)
Volunteers with the Thanksgiving food drive and their kids were treated to a mini carnival. (Dan Ferguson/Langley Advance Times)
There was a pony ride. Volunteers with the Thanksgiving food drive were treated to a mini carnival. (Dan Ferguson/Langley Advance Times)
