Thousands of dollars worth of food is on its way to Penticton’s most vulnerable community members this Thanksgiving season.
A total of 66 local volunteers collected six tons of food and more than $6,300 in cash for Penticton’s Salvation Army on Saturday, Sept. 24, all in the name of contributing to the annual BC Thanksgiving Food Drive.
The cash donations resulted in more than $18,000 worth of food for local community members.
Saturday marked the 12th time Penticton had participated in the province-wide initiative.
Volunteers of all ages spent hours leaving empty grocery bags at the doors of homes in Penticton last week, with the idea the residents could fill them to be picked up on Saturday.
“We are touched by the generous food donations at many doors in our city,” local food drive organizers wrote. “We cherish the relationships formed among good people through this annual gathering, and we look forward with joy to serving together in future food drives and other community events.”
Penticton’s Save-On-Foods was thanked for having a special in-store collection point for people who purchased groceries on Saturday.
The local Moduline International location, meanwhile, was also acknowledged by event organizers for collecting donations at its workplace.
B.C.’s annual Thanksgiving Food Drive collected about 500,000 pounds of food in 2021. Though results from the 2022 event have not been revealed, provincial organizers took to Facebook on Sept. 26 to call this year’s drive “a huge success.”
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