Thousands of pounds of food that sat on Okotoks doorsteps last week will soon be on the tables of those in need. Volunteers with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints collected more than 26,000 pounds of non-perishable food items from Okotoks homes Sept. 15 in the Okotoks Food Bank Association’s largest annual food drive. “It’s an incredible undertaking,” said Sheila Hughes, association executive director. “We’re so grateful for it.” The food drive began last week with members of the church’s youth program putting together routes and collection bags with a list of needed items provided by the food bank before congregation volunteers delivered them to homes Thursday and Friday for collection on Saturday. Volunteers with the food bank supplied empty crates and boxes to the church, where the food was sorted before being delivered to the food bank in Okotoks’ industrial park. “We have some neighbours with extra warehouse space who let us use it,” said Hughes. “It’s an overwhelming amount of food, but it’s necessary. It really helps us get to next summer.” Hughes said the donation comes at a good time. “Things start to get low this time of year,” she said. “We definitely start to buy some things - canned meals, hearty soups, peanut butter and jams, crackers and cheese, protein items, school snack items. Those are the things we were quite low on.” Each year, the food bank receives about 200,000 pounds of food, which includes donations from grocery stores, individuals, schools and produce grown in the community garden, said Hughes. While the demand for food hampers decreased slightly from last year, Hughes said the Help Yourself program, which provides additional food to individuals and families needing help between hampers, increased significantly. The idea of the food drive came from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints congregation member Steven Cooper three years ago after volunteering in similar food drives in previous communities he lived in. “We wanted to do a service project to give back to the community so that was our way of doing it,” he said. “That was the time when the economy really crashed. Three years ago was basically the worst part.” The drive brought about 33,000 pounds of food to the food bank each in 2016 and 2017 due to the efforts of about 600 volunteers from four congregations, said Cooper. “We overwhelmed them the first year,” he said. “Nobody knew what the response was going to be from the community. We were thinking maybe 10,000 pounds. When we hit 30,000 we thought, this is unbelievable.” Cooper said the congregation struggled to find places to store the food that first year. “The food bank had no place to store it so we stored it in people’s garages and the church,” he said. “We had food throughout the building and ran out of places to put that much food. At one point you could go into the church and you would find food bags in every room. I think it was a wonderful thing.” Cooper said the food drive will continue to be an annual initiative. “As long as there is the food bank there will be a food drive,” he said. “The success is due to the generosity of the community. Everybody saw there was a need.”
