Yukoners show their generosity with spring food drive
Whitehorse residents showed their generosity once again this year, with piles of donations for the local food bank.
More than 3,000 green bags full of food were collected over three days this week. The annual spring food drive is organized by churches and youth groups.
Tristan Newsome, executive director of the Whitehorse Food Bank, says it's a very important time of year for food donations.
"We are going into a real difficult season for the food bank," Newsome said. "The donations we get typically correspond with holidays, so we typically start getting low on food during the summer months."
Newsome says the spring drive helps the food bank get by until Christmas.
"It really kind of boosts and totally stocks our shelves," he said.
Better bags
Newsome says the Yukon Employees Union helped out this year, along with Northern Vision Development. Whitehorse Motors donated the green tote bags that were distributed around the city.
The cloth bags hold more food and are a lot easier to handle than the paper bags used in the past, Newsome says.
He also says the demand for food is growing every year.
"We service around 1,500 people, on a monthly basis. 35 per cent of those are children, which is a real unfortunate reality."
He says the food drive this week has filled the food bank's shelves, and he can't thank the volunteers and Whitehorse residents enough.
