Oak Park Neighbourhood Centre’s 8th annual food drive was a success collecting approximately 24,746 pounds of food, a new record for the food drive that brings 15 congregations together, along with the 1st Trafalgar Venturers and the Sheridan College Student Union collecting food for food banks in Oakville.
The food drive shows unity of the faith community in Oakville while ensuring food banks don’t run out of food through the summer months when donations are typically low.
528 very wet volunteers collected and sorted 2,908 bags full of food from homes in the Oakville community, which is a record. Volunteers stated that this year the collected bags were fuller than previous years and in some cases more than one bag of food was donated. $660 was also collected, and 1364 boxes were filled setting new records for the annual food drive.
Approximately 9000 pounds of the collected food was donated to Food for Life, a local food based charity that sources and distributes fresh, nutritious food to those in need.
“We are very grateful for this donation from Oak Park Neighbourhood Centre,” said Brenda Hajdu, Executive Director of Food for Life. “It is because of donations like this that we are able to provide food for almost 6,000 meals a day to people in need.”
Food for Life is the largest food distribution network in Halton and Hamilton and provides food for almost 26,000 visits per month.