DIDSBURY - The annual Lions food drive returns to Didsbury on Thursday from 5 to 8 p.m.
Once again Didsbury Lions Club members will team up with Westglen School students to collect food as well as money from local residents to give to the Mountain View Food Bank.
Lions member Vance van Dam, food drive coordinator, said the club expects to reach nearly every residence in the town. He estimates that the Didsbury Lions have been doing the food drive for close to 20 years now.
"Again we've solicited the help of students from Westglen School and they always graciously put together a nice contingent of kids to help us out," said van Dam. "They seem to enjoy it. It's a win-win. We give a small donation back to them to help with some of their programs. They're all set to go again."
Van Dam said the Lions members head out in trucks with the Westglen students to pick up the donations all around town.
"We go around and pick up from all the residents," he said. "We do try to successfully cover 100 per cent of the town. We might miss the odd one but that's our goal. We have the town sectioned off every year. Each member and their student runners have an area assigned to them."
Van Dam said people can leave their donations on their front step in a bag or box if they wish.
"We take dry goods, canned goods, spaghetti, stuff like that," he said. "We'll take toilet paper. We'll take garden vegetables as well. We can't take preserves like jams or jellies. Most time people just go to their pantry and fill a box with some canned goods. That's always good."
Van Dam said there is always a high demand at the food bank, particularly heading into the colder months.
"There are lots of people still that aren't working and are struggling and need some assistance," he said. "Especially this time heading into the fall and winter season demand gets higher. There's probably less people working full-time and that sort of thing. It seems every year the demand gets greater."
Van Dam said the club also accepts cash and cheques made out to Didsbury Lions.
"If people don't have something they want to donate or don't want to go digging, we graciously accept cash donations or cheques," he said. "We're very grateful for the help from the people of Didsbury and hope they'll help us out again with donations. We gratefully appreciate it."
