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Orangeville Food Bank to host first-ever spring food drive to address shortage

April 11, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By Sam Odrowski

The Orangeville Food Bank is running out of food.

As of Tuesday, April 9, the food bank had bare shelves for juice, cereal, apple sauce, dog food, condiments and diapers.

The shortage of donations comes as a result of skyrocketing demand, as it sees a 41 per cent increase in client usage over 2023.

To address the food shortage and rising demand at the Orangeville Food Bank, it’s hosting its first-ever spring food drive on April 20 from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. The food bank needs to collect 200,000 lbs of donations between now and June to keep up with the amount of food going out its doors. The Spring-A-Licious Food Drive will take place at Sobeys (500 Riddell Rd.), Metro (150 First. St.), No Frills (90 C Line), and Zehrs (50 Fourth Ave.).

Volunteers will be located in front of participating grocery stores to take in the donations and let shoppers know what’s on the Orangeville Food Bank’s most-needed items list.

“We rely solely on community support, and our community’s fantastic. But with that big 41 per cent increase [in usage], we just aren’t able to keep up with the demand,” said Savanaha O’Reilly, food manager for the Orangeville Food Bank. “We’re really trying to push and get more food in the door, hence the Spring Food Drive. We’ve never done one in the spring before, so this will be a staple food drive that we have every single year going forward. 

“We just don’t have a choice in order to keep up with the demand.”

Since last July, the Orangeville Food Bank has brought in 218,000 lbs of food, and in the next three months, it will need 200,000 lbs or more to ensure its shelves stay stocked. 

“We’re hoping that we can get most of it restocked this month with this Food Drive,” said O’Reilly. 

The food bank has reached out to businesses and the community to let them know about the need for donations and O’Reilly said money has been coming in. Over the next couple of weeks that money will be used to restock empty shelves of essential non-perishable items. 

Most donations for the Orangeville Food Bank come in from September to December, during a time of increased community-run fundraisers, school food drives, and residents getting into the spirit of giving through the holidays. 

This results in very few donations in the first few months of the year, which was once manageable, but a continued flow of donations is direly needed now to accommodate the community’s increasing demand for food. 

The recent economic challenges many households face due to high inflation and interest rates are leaving less money available to accommodate rising food costs.

“Everybody is struggling right now, and we understand that,” said O’Reilly. “At the same time, we have people that are coming through our doors that never thought that they’d need our services… they’ve always been donating, they’ve never been the one on the receiving end.”

She added, “It could soon one day be you; it could be any of us. Unfortunately, that’s kind of where we are at this day and time. “

O’Reilly said the Orangeville Food Bank is a “soft place to land” for anyone struggling financially. 

“We’re always open to help anybody and you’re welcome to come through our doors anytime – no judgement,” she said.

O’Reilly added that she’d encourage everyone to support the Spring-A-Licious Food Drive later this month.

“We just really do appreciate the community, we appreciate everything that they do for us and we hope to see them on Saturday, April 20th,” she said. 

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