Ward by ward food drive in St. John's to help 'huge shortage'
Residents of St. John's are being asked to pitch in on a city-wide effort to collect food donations for the Community Food Sharing Association.
The association says its food donations are down drastically — by more than 27,000 kilograms.
"As you look around this warehouse, you'll see that there are a lot of empty shelves — shelves with no food on them. Christmas is coming and people are in need," said O'Keefe.
"Let's put a bag of food on every doorstep and every doorknob and let's get this place filled up."
O'Keefe said each day next week, starting on Monday, food will be collected in a different city ward.
Residents are asked to leave non-perishable food items in a plastic bag on the appropriate day.
"We're asking all of our residents to put a food bag, either tie it on their door knob or put it on the front step. We'll be around to collect it each day," said O'Keefe."
Christmas is coming and people are in need.- St. John's Mayor Dennis O'Keefe
For many years, postal workers in St. John's organized a massive door-to-door collection of canned food.
But following the recent cuts at Canada Post, that collection has been cancelled — leaving a huge shortage.
The city decided to step in and use workers from its parks department to make the collections.
Each ward in St. John's has about 22,000 people. There are five wards.
For the complete schedule, click here.