Food drive goes Thursday

DIDSBURY - The Didsbury Lions Club members and their Westglen School helpers will be hitting the streets of Didsbury on Thursday evening, Sept. 27 from 5 to 8 p.m. collecting food for the Mountain View Food Bank.

Lions member and food drive coordinator Vince Van Dam said the Didsbury Lions have been doing the food drive for a number of years.

"We've been doing it for 15 to 20 years," said Van Dam. "Something like that. It's important to help the food bank."

The Mountain View Food Bank is based in Olds but provides for needy families in Mountain View County, Olds, Sundre, Didsbury, Carstairs, Cremona, Torrington and Water Valley.

"It services the whole area; all the towns around here," he said. "This is the time of year when you start to get more demand especially as it gets closer to Christmas. There are still a lot of people who don't have a lot. It just gives them something so they can eat."

Van Dam said that residents can also leave food out on their doorstep with a label on it for pickup if they aren't going to be home or available on Thursday night.

"We're looking for non-perishable items; it can be hygiene products as well like shampoo, toilet paper," he said. "We don't take home preserves or that type of thing. We do take cash donations. They need to buy some stuff that is perishable, such as meat. They need a lot of cash to operate. So we always ask people if they don't want to donate food items or don't want to bother, we tell the kids to say we'll gladly accept cash donations."

Van Dam said the club has about 30 or so students come out from Westglen School to help pick up donations. In exchange, the club provides a donation to the school for the athletics program.

At last year's food drive, the club raised $525 in cash and 5,160 pounds of groceries valued at approximately $12,900.

A letter of appreciation from the food bank stated: This ongoing assistance in supporting the food bank makes a major contribution to our working budget as we depend 100 per cent on donations from business, organizations and individuals in the surrounding community.

In 2016, the food bank provided 4,253 hampers, an increase of 21 per cent over the previous year.