Photo Credit: Grande Prairie Food Drive Facebook page.

By Shane Clausing

Community

Rotary Clubs of Grande Prairie annual community food drive shifted to online

Sep 21, 2021 | 2:15 PM

The Rotary Clubs of Grande Prairie annual food drive to support the Grande Prairie Salvation Army has been moved to online-only because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The food drive was originally supposed to kick off with an in-person event on September 21 at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church from 4-7 p.m. However, because of the pandemic, officials decided now would not be the appropriate time to go ahead with in-person events.

While it is disappointing the food drive can’t continue in person, Captain Peter Kim says they had success with a virtual food drive last year.

“It’s unfortunate we have to cancel the physical collection of donations this year because of restrictions,” he said. “We are moving to the virtual food drive. Going to the gpfooddrive.ca website, we’re able to get donations in a virtual sense through monetary donations.”

Kim tells EverythingGP they’ll still accept all food donations through gpfooddrive.ca and hopes it can help them raise between $70,000 and $100,000 in donations.

“We’re hoping that we’ll be able to meet or exceed those targets this year. We do recognize there is a fourth wave, there is a lot of people in need and we want to be prepared so we can meet that need.”

According to Kim, the food bank saw a 63 per cent increase in the number of food hampers given out to members in the community in 2020.

Kim adds the virtual donations are actually more convenient for those receiving items from the food bank, as it allows for them to have a variety of food options to choose from.

“We’re hoping to add a little more dignity this year with having virtual food drives so the money can actually go towards gift cards this year, so people can actually shop for items they need. This way, people actually have the dignity of choice.”

As mentioned by Kim, donations can be made by heading to the gpfooddrive.ca website. The food drive will go until the end of October.