Food Bank of Waterloo Region sees 'heartwarming response' to holiday food drive

The response for this year's annual holiday food drive was "heartwarming," the executive director of The Food Bank of Waterloo Region says.

Donations are still being counted, but the drive went very well, Wendi Campbell told The Morning Edition host Craig Norris on Monday.

But while Campbell and those who work at the food bank were impressed with the donations, she said they were touched by how the community came together to give.

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"For us, it wasn't about the numbers. It was the heartwarming response from the community. Every time we turned around during the month of December, there was something new happening. There was a new business doing a food drive," said Campbell.

"The feedback we got from (the CBC event) Sounds of the Season was just amazing. We talking to some absolutely phenomenal people that day who had personal stories to share of friends and families and neighbours who had accessed emergency services," Campbell said.

Campbell also said that grocery store donations increased as well, both food and money donations. 

Donations would last 15 weeks

Despite a good giving season, Campbell said they cannot sit back and relax. If they did not receive another donation starting today, the food and money gathered during the holidays would last just 15 weeks.

That food is going out as quickly as it comes in.- Wendi Campbell, executive director of The Food Bank of Waterloo Region

"We are working with over 100 programs throughout Waterloo Region who are providing food services every single day in this community. There are hundreds of food hampers being distributed every day in the community, thousands of meals being served," she said.

"Although Christmas is a great time for us to re-energize and fill our inventory to get us through the winter months, that food is going out as quickly as it comes in."

Someone on your street uses the food bank

One in 20 households in Waterloo Region accesses the food bank, Campbell said.

"We were chatting with a group a couple weeks ago about that and they said, does that mean there's someone on my street who's accessing the food bank and we said probably," she said.

There's a range of reasons why people need to rely on the food bank. It could be a family where someone lost a job or cannot work, a person on disability pension, or seniors whose pensions don't cover everything, according to Campbell. Sometimes the people using the food bank just need help for a week or two. Other times, it's a service they rely on over the long term.

Campbell said the number of people who need the food bank spiked in 2008 and have never gone down.

"I think we all, in the last three or four years, have been touched by somebody. I think we all know somebody who has stumbled, who has lost a job, who has become ill. I think the awareness is definitely a little higher," she said.

Despite companies like Google opening a new engineering headquarters in Waterloo last week, Campbell said many in the community are still struggling to find work, and the food bank can step in to help if needed.

"There's a lot of people who are looking for work who don't have the skills to take the new jobs in our community, that are still trying to figure out where do they fit in this community and while they're figuring that out, that's where these programs and services can step in to provide that support," she said.