Local Ford dealership Ducharme Motors has partnered up with a renowned national charitable organization to collect “much-needed” food for the Bonnyville Food Bank.
The company kicked off its ‘We Scare Hunger' campaign in collaboration with Free the Children at the beginning of the month, challenging local residents to gather as much non-perishable food as possible to donate to the struggling food bank in town.
Speaking to the Nouvelle last week, the individual charged with promoting the program within the community, Mary Bauer said donations were going “extremely well” so far, stating she was “very impressed” with the way local residents have bought into the initiative.
“So far, the response from the public has been absolutely amazing – we had our big pooling event at a local football game (Oct. 18) where we filled the box of an F150,” Bauer said. “We're about half way full on another truck in our show room too, so this has been great so far.”
As well as collecting at the football game and their dealership office, just west of town along Main Street, Bauer said invitations had been sent to schools in Bonnyville to collect donations for the food bank too.
With the local food bank currently in desperate need for food due to a larger than usual usage of the facility by local residents in recent weeks, Bauer said this food drive comes at the “perfect time.”
“This thing really seemed to tie in well with a time when our local food bank was really looking for donations – they've seen the biggest increase in usership in quite a while in recent weeks, so they were really happy when we dropped off the truckload from the football game last week,” Bauer said. “They said it was going to fill the shelves up nicely.”
Having just recently moved to the area, Bauer said it was nice to try and “become a part of the community” rather than just “seeing everything go by.”
“It's really nice to be able to give back to the community – I don't think too many people think about (the fact people have to use the foodbank) because we live in such an oilrich area, that we just think of people making lots and lots of money, but there are also those living here that don't have access to those kinds of paying jobs and don't have access to the sort of things everybody else does,” Bauer said.
She added, “For me personally, having just moved here, it's great to take on an active role and participate in community events and initiatives.”
With donations continuing to flood in, Bauer said she was hoping to fill up three trucks once all is said and done. With Ducharme offering the possibility of prizes to those that donate, she believes that feat is “definitely achievable.”
For those looking to donate, the food bank is looking for items such as; hamburger and tuna helper, sidekicks, rice, cookies and crackers, boxed potatoes, coffee and tea, juice boxes and juice cartons, granola bars, cereal and canned fruit.
They are also accepting such things as macaroni and cheese boxes, canned meats such as chicken, ham and flakes of turkey, instant noodles, peanut butter and ham, pasta sauce, stove top stuffing, pancake mix and “shelf” milk.
To set up a donation drop-off, call 780-826-3278.
