Celebrating
20
years of service

London, Ontario | www.londonfoodbank.net | londonfb at web.net

Revenue Canada charitable registration BN: 13620 3205 RR0001

Journal

 

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

We are now into our 20th year and who would have known two decades ago that we would still be here. Food banks began as a temporary measure in Canada to deal with the realities of recession. Yet after all this time our numbers continue to move upwards and child poverty continues to be a major national challenge. As a board of directors we have worked hard to balance the need for celebration of having come this far with the fact that poverty continues to be a blight. Throughout this coming year we will be attempting to remind local citizens and institutions of these two dimensions and hopefully the community can entertain some kind of dialogue as to what will be required to reduce food bank useage in the future. None of this will be easy, but it is a conversation all of us who care about our city must have.

Monday, May 23, 2005

With the annual Blue Box Food Drive about to get underway, the London Food Bank begins to prepare for the developments of summer.  The Blue Box drive represents the end of our busiest time of year for donations - the period between Thanksgiving and May.  Yet, while donations drop off the number of people coming to us for assistance stays roughly the same.  This means that our supplies run lean during the summer months and we attempt to ensure enough food is on our shelves until the annual Thanksgiving food Drive in October.  That's five months of careful distribution to accomplish.  Yet each year the London community has generously donated enough that we have been able to get through this long stretch.  In fact, 2005 has been our best year ever for donations and we're sure the trend will continue for the remainder of the year.  But for now we have to gear up for summer.  Londoners all should enjoy a well-deserved holiday, but hunger doesn't take vacations and we'll be ready to deal with whomever requires our assistance.

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

The totals are now in from all the food drives that took place in December and the news is heartening.  About two hundred food drives took place around the city, some large and others smaller.  Companies had huge food drives while other citizens collected food for the food bank at various Christmas parties with family and friends.  The Business Cares food drive had its best year by far, collecting almost 100,000 pounds, which were delivered to the London Food Bank just prior to Christmas.  It has made a significant difference.  The Food Bank held its annual Christmas party for the hundreds of volunteers who assisted us this year and the numbers attending were large enough that we will have to change the venue next year.  In early-January we also celebrated our first full year in our new building.  It is difficult to describe just what a difference having this new location has meant to us, especially in light of the new depots that have opened around the city that the food bank must supply.  So to all Londoners we express a sincere thank you for our best Christmas ever and for facilitating our acquiring a location that makes us far more effective.

Monday, November 1, 2004

Our recently completed Thanksgiving Food Drive ended up surprising us. Food banks across Canada have traditionally seen their autumn drives declining in total amounts and we expected this year to be the same. And it definitely started out that way. Through most of the ten-day drive it appeared as though we wouldn't reach last year's total. And then suddenly on the big Thanksgiving weekend the London public, assisted by churches, companies and service clubs, donated in record amounts and by the end of the drive we had exceeded last year's total by a few thousand pounds. But the most important thing that came out of the drive was the unprecedented media attention give to the subject of whether the London Food Bank should become a staple and permanent part of the city's landscape. We purposefully spoke often on this subject during the drive because we worry that with the addition of new depots supplied by the food bank around the city, the inclination for local citizens and their elected representatives to have a serious dialogue about tackling hunger in London seemed to be disappearing. We believe it's time to put the issue front and centre again before all of us come to regard the growing hunger in the region to be just a part of life.

Saturday, August 14, 2004

It's been a wonderfully successful year so far. Already half of our building has been paid down and the community has responded strongly to our new profile. The Spring Food Drive exceeded last year's total, as did the dynamic Curbside drive. With more volunteers than ever, we look forward to galvanizing citizens to involve themselves in the plight of those who are struggling to make ends meet. Plans are already underway for the annual Thanksgiving Food Drive, which will become part of a greater provincial initiative this year involving other members of the Ontario Association of Food Banks (OAFB). Glen is currently a board member of the OAFB and has been working with other food banks across Ontario to develop province-wide initiatives that will coordinate efforts amongst all food banks.

As many people have probably heard, the London Food Bank has been asked to be the central warehouse and supplier for the new food depot city-wide initiative. Led by the Hunger Relief Advisory Committee (HRAC), the Food Bank, in cooperation with the City of London, is presently supplying three satellite depots in different parts of the city. Two more depots are expected to be opened by October of this year. For a number of years now concern has been raised that it sometimes takes two or three bus transfers for clients to get to the Food Bank. The idea of placing food closer to where people live has taken some time to develop. Now that it is up and running, we will be monitoring the effectiveness of the depot system and reporting back to our partners as to its sustainability. One of the reasons we purchased the new building on Leathorne Street was to be able to serve as the central warehouse for the depot system. The benefits of the move in this regard are now becoming obvious.

Monday, January 5, 2004

At long last we have our new home.  Our new facility at 926 Leathorne Street is all that we could have hoped for - a clean and efficient warehouse, lots of office space and great loading bays for incoming and outgoing food shipments.

We spend the better part of two weeks shipping everything over to the new location and our days were filled up with putting in new phone lines, erecting racking in the warehouse and holding numerous media interviews about our new location.  Volunteers are in the process of fixing up the front reception area and our warehouse is being arranged in a way in which we can store the thousands of pounds of food that came into us over the Christmas season.

And what a Christmas it was!  Over 300 food drives were held across the city for the London Food Bank.  Peter Garland came out of retirement to hold his annual radio show for the week before Christmas.  And the Business Cares food drive saw over 300 businesses raise over $150,000 worth of food.  All in all, a wonderful season.

Our "One Buck, One Person, One Time" campaign has had significant success.  We are over halfway to our $400,000 goal for the new building and things look good for 2004.  Our faith in London citizens has never wavered and once again they have come through in a big way.

Monday, October 6, 2003

An important day in the life of the London Food Bank.  Today we held our kick-off press conference announcing our new building campaign.  Between Thanksgiving and Easter, the "One Buck, One Person, One Time" fundraising appeal will be asking every Londoner to donate at least a loonie to the campaign.

As you probably noted on the home page of this web site, the new location for the London Food Bank will be at 926 Leathorne Street (Commissioners & Adelaide area).  The new building offers everything we require for not only feeding people directly but also for shipping and receiving food supplies from different parts of Ontario and even across the country.

This is the first time we've held a public fundraising event and we are planning on doing it just this one time.  People can drop their donations off at any of London's 12 fire stations or send their donation in to:  One Buck, One Person, One Time", P.O. Box 25-300, London, N6C 6B1.

Friday, April 4, 2003

Following six months of research, we presently our "Decade Report" to the Food Bank board of directors, as well as to a number of community leaders and groups.  Though the economy appears to be racing along, the reality is that for hundreds of thousands of Canadians the good times have passed them by.  As a direct result of policy decisions by all levels of governments, the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots" has never been greater.  Regardless of how people perceive the economic changes of the last few years, no one wants to see people go hungry.  Yet that is exactly what has transpired as record numbers of people visit the country's food banks for assistance.  Much has been made of the supposed "investment economy" by numerous corporate and political leaders.  However, slightly over 50% of Canadians aren't in a position to take advantage of such realities.  For the nation's poor, the prognosis grows increasingly bleak.  In recent polls, over 80% of Canadians state that they believe poverty to be a shame for Canada and that people shouldn't have to go hungry.  For some reason such public input hasn't made its way into the economic mainstream of Canada's decision makers.  The London Food Bank now predicts that our number will increase from 2700 families a month to 3500 within the next five years.  This is a remarkable jump and one for which we will have to vigorously prepare in the near future.

Monday, October 28, 2002

43,000 pounds!  That's how much food came in during our city-wide Thanksgiving Food Drive event this year, which ran from October 5-26.  That's more food than we received last year.  However, this year's event was something totally different than we have done before.  For the first time ever, the grocery industry of Ontario combined forces to hold food drives province-wide for the Ontario Association of Food Banks, of which London is a charter member.  In a wonderful display of support, key competitors such as A&P, Loblaws, Sobey's, Knechtels and others put aside their competitive instincts and cooperated on a venture that will have significant effects around the province.  Special food products were labelled in the stores and special food drive plastic bags were available for the use of shoppers.  In addition, cash coupons worth $2 were available at the checkout counters for those wishing to take part.  Though this drive is highly innovative, it is the first one of its kind and many kinks have to be worked out by both the grocery industry and the province's food banks.  Nevertheless, it has changed the way food banks will hold their food drives.  Plans are underway to hold this event three times a year - Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.  This will provide stable food supplies and perhaps increased funding - all of which will be required as we attempt to meet the challenges of increased demands.

Saturday, May 11, 2002.

We are presently preparing for our annual board of directors retreat, to take place this year on June 8th. Both of our walk-in freezers are in a deteriorated condition and we have to make a decision as to how to replace them. In addition, we'll need to have an overall discussion as to the future direction of the London Food Bank. Now that we are assisting roughly 3,000 families per month, the time has come to see if there is a more efficient way we can service our clients. Also, with the number of agencies coming to us for help steadily on the increase, we'll need to look into more warehouse space to accommodate increased supplies of the food we're storing for those agencies. This is our best chance each year for all of the directors to consider where we're going and to make sure we fulfill our mandate of "Helping a Generous Community Share Its Food Resources."

Saturday, April 20, 2002.

The totals are all in from our annual spring food drive and it appears we did slightly better than last year. The beginning of the drive had its worrisome moments as early totals showed we were down almost 25% from the year previous. However, thanks to some consistent media coverage and a generous London public, the last half of the drive exceeded expectations and we were able to come in slightly over target. The real story is in the trends of giving to this drive - our biggest of the year. Over the past five years the donations to the drive have dropped significantly. While this could be a troubling trend, it is offset by generous donations at other times of the year. During each of the last five years, overall yearly givings to the London Food Bank have increased each successive year. Nevertheless, we have to find new ways of energizing this important initiative and keeping it relevant. It remains our best opportunity to tell the story of our clients to the media and thereby to the London public.

Saturday, January 26, 2002.

Things have finally died down have a very hectic December and Christmas season. The Food Bank had a special boost this year as a result of the "Business Cares" drive, that saw a large number of London's businesses and corporations pulling together in a collective effort to assist the less-fortunate during the Christmas season. The grand total collected was 35,000 pounds of quality non-perishable food - a great success! Other events included the Canadian Pacific's "Holiday Train" that rolled through London just prior to Christmas. A large amount of food was collected and almost $10,000 donated. Peter Garland's "Christmas Miracle" radio show ran the week prior to Christmas and was a smashing success. Many London entertainers performed each day of the week and numerous dignitaries and guests popped in for interviews. When it was all over, the drive raised approximately 7,000 pounds of food and over $35,000 in donations. The London public and corporations proved once again that the Christmas spirit is alive and well in this community and the success of it all was a great encouragement to all our volunteers and staff.

Monday, November 12, 2001

The weather couldn't have been better for the Santa Claus Parade, held last Saturday, November 10th. We had more volunteers than we have ever had before for the event - 60 firefighters and their families, 20 or so kids from Oakridge Presbyterian Church, and numerous other helpers, including local and federal politicians and local media representatives. We did things a little different this year. Rather than placing all the food in small boxes on haywagons, we used large 4' by 4' cardboard boxes and the volunteers loaded all the donated food easily into these containers. It was the smoothest it's ever been. Special thanks to Arctic Snowplow, who lent us their truck and trailer for the parade and who also assisted us back at the warehouse by using their fork truck to offload everything - it saved us hours. All in all, 13,000 pounds of food were donated. Though this was down slightly from last year, it is roughly the same we get every Santa Claus Parade - last year was just an exceptional year. Londoners were as generous as ever and we thank all of those who took part and made it a special event. Jane, myself, and many of the other volunteers find this to be our favorite event, because it puts us the closest to the donating public. This year was another big boost for us.

Monday, October 15, 2001

The final tally for the Breakfast For Kids Food Drive is now in and the results have been somewhat disappointing. With all the collecting now finished, we finished up with slightly more than 31,000 pounds of non-perishable food donated. While this is a sizeable amount, it is still down about 3,000 pounds from last year's total. We believe there were two basic reasons for this. The first was the attention surrounding the World Trade Centre bombing of September 11th and the sheer amount of space given to it by media. This was only natural, given the scope of the disaster, but it still meant that there wasn't as much media space remaining to give the Food Drive itself the attention it deserved. This especially held true during the middle of the drive. Secondly, Londoners, in an explosion of generosity, donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the New York City emergency relief fund. This also had an impact on the resources available to give to the Breakfast For Kids Drive. Glen Pearson and Jane Roy will be making a presentation to the Board of Directors in November regarding ways in which the drive itself might be rejuvinated. Because child poverty has almost doubled in Ontario in recent years, the need to keep the issue alive in the minds of citizens is vital and the Breakfast For Kids event was one of the best ways to do that.

Thursday, September 27, 2001

Held the opening press conference for the Breakfast For Kids Food Drive at Westmount Mall this morning. In spite of all the attention directed towards the plight of children in poverty in these last few years, the reality remains that child poverty is actually on the increase again in Canada. In fact, the United Nations places Canada 17th in the world in this area - directly behind Poland! It will be difficult for the drive to do well this year because of all the attention being focused on the terrorist attacks in the United States. Last year we raised a total of 70,000 breakfasts. Here's hoping we can do even better this year. Child poverty is just a problem that will not go away.

Friday, September 14, 2001

Glen and Jane assisted in the opening of the huge new Loblaws store at Southdale and Wonderland. Also present were London mayor Anne Marie DeCicco and numerous councillors and Board of Control members. This occasion was used to draw attention to our upcoming Breakfast For Kids food drive that runs from September 28 to Thanksgiving Monday, October 8, 2001. This is the only drive of its kind in Canada and the hopes are that public generosity will once again assist us in supplying the numerous feeding initiatives for kids taking place across the city.

Wednesday, September 5, 2001

At the London Food Bank board meeting tonight we discovered that a troubling trend has started to develop here in London. The number of people coming to us for assistance has begun to increase. Other municipalities across the province haven't seen such a development and this is unusual because the food banks of Ontario tend to go through their various cycles collectively. We are currently in the process of analyzing the numbers. Should the trend continue until Christmas, we will have a significant challenge on our hands in 2002.

Wednesday, August 29, 2001

Jane Roy, our Assistant Director, arrived back in Canada today after spending three months in Africa. Her purpose there was to see to the adoption of Abuk, a 16-month old southern Sudanese girl. Abuk and her mother had been held in slavery in northern Sudan, but with the assistance of Canadian donations, Jane and Glen were able to purchase them out of slavery. Shortly after acquiring their freedom, Abuk was orphaned when she and her mother were chased by helicopter gunships into a minefield, where her mother was instantly killed. Somehow Abuk remarkably survived, lying in the minefield for hours before someone went in to get her. The first thing on Abuk's agenda is to get to a doctor because of the many physical challenges she has faced in the last few months. Jane and Glen are looking forward to watching Abuk grow and develop in freedom and security.

Wednesday, June 27, 2001

The final results are in and it turns out that this year's Curbside Recycling Drive exceeded all expectations and reached 64,000 pounds - 8,000 more than last year. It does wonders for the morale of food bank volunteers when they hear this kind of news. Going into the summer months, when donations traditionally are down but demand stays the same, the infusion of this amount of food will help see us through until our Thanksgiving food drive. Once again Londoners have come through in a big way!

Thursday, June 14, 2001

Glen took part in the opening kick-off the Curbside Recycling Drive that took place at City Hall. Mayor Anne Marie DeCicco assisted in presenting the initiative to the media. The drive itself runs From June 15-23. Because this initiative has become our second biggest food drive of the year, much time and effort must be placed into making sure the media is informed on a regular basis during the drive and that the totals collected are up to date. This is the fifth year for the drive.

Monday, June 11, 2001

Jane Roy left for Africa today, perhaps for the duration of the summer. Through our extensive work fighting slavery in Sudan we have sought to adopt a child from southern Sudan. Abuk is slightly over a year old. Along with her mother she had been held captive in slavery, until we were able to get them released. Sadly, Abuk's mother was killed while stepping on a landmine. Abuk escaped unharmed. In order to process the legalities of adoption, Jane has been granted an extended leave from the London Food Bank to accomplish this. Glen is handling her duties while she's gone and is also handling the various stages of the adoption at the Canada end. Jane is due to return in August with their new daughter.

Thursday, May 31 - Saturday, June 2, 2001

Both Glen and Jane attended the Canadian Association of Food Banks annual meeting in Ottawa. While attending the various workshops they discovered that the other food banks around the country have also experienced an increase in demand and that many of them are hard pressed to continue operating at their current level. Efforts are being made to expand the national food sharing program, which ships surpluses around the country to the various food banks who are part of the sharing system. London has been a significant contributor in the past and will continue in this role.

Friday, February 23, 2001

The staff of the food bank met this morning for breakfast. We do this every week, attempting to keep ahead of all the challenges we face. It's at these meetings that we not only talk over the details of the operation itself but also discuss the overall philosophy of our organization and its value to the community.

Thursday, February 22, 2001

London hosts the Ontario Association of Food Banks meeting on March 1-2. We spent the day making sure all the details and arrangements are set. Attending will be most of the major food banks in the province. Because we both have chaired this organization at different times, we have a keen interest

Monday, February 19, 2001

Because Glen works a 24-hour shift at the fire station, Jane has had to handle the meetings for the day. She spent the day discussing promotion for the upcoming spring food drive, met with various other food agencies, and went over the financial statements with Mike Evans, our accountant.

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