Be a Big Help: Food For Families

I love food. And now that fall is turning into winter and holidays are piling on top of each other, our house is filled with Halloween goodies and fresh baked treats. Our fridge is overflowing and if I plan to put one more leftover into it, I will definitely need to clean it out.

These aren’t such bad problems to have.

Holidays remind me how much I have to be thankful for.

But not everyone is so lucky. “Each month, close to 900,000 Canadians are assisted by food banks, and 38% of those helped are children and youth.”¹ I am incredibly grateful that we have food banks in our communities to help our neighbours.

Food banks need more than just food to feed families. Across Canada, many food banks face capacity issues, such as freezers, shelves for storage rooms, and even delivery trucks. These are the kinds of basic resources that food banks need in order to meet the growing demands of their communities.

We often think about food banks during the holiday season, and we wonder how we can help. Well, Kraft Canada is making it simple for each of us to make an impact on our community. Kraft is teaming up with Food Banks Canada to help Canadians support the short-term needs for food and long-term solutions to hunger. Kraft Food for Families is a national program designed to help food banks better serve their communities. This year, they have a donation goal of  $125,000 and are supporting 100 local food banks across Canada.

All you have to do is visit www.kraftfoodforfamilies.ca and sign your name. Each time a name is added, 50 cents will be donated to one of 100 local food banks across Canada. 50 cents doesn’t seem like a lot, but if you sign your name every day, $30 will be donated to the food bank of your choice. Just imagine how much good we can do if we all sign our name and if we all do it daily.

Pick a food bank and support it. Encourage your friends to donate to that food bank. I am supporting Feed Nova Scotia Halifax Regional Municipality and I would love it if you would too. But feel free to support your local food bank too. The food bank with the most signatures in each region at the end of December will be awarded an bonus donation of $5000. (If you want to support the food bank I am supporting, chose the Atlantic region and find the dot at the very edge of the ocean, beside the word HALIFAX).

Let’s be thankful for what we have this season, and while we do that, let’s help others have a little more too.

I will be signing my name every day, and I hope you will too. Stay tuned for this blog for more information about food banks and how we all can help.

¹Source: FoodBanksCanada.ca