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Donations down to Maple Ridge food bank for Thanksgiving food drive

Friends In Need Food Bank still in need heading into the winter
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Volunteers and staff with the Friends In Need Food Bank, including general manager Evan Seal in red, who helped with the BC Thanksgiving Food Drive. (Special to The News)

Residents of Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows opened their cupboards and were generous, once again, in their donations to the annual BC Thanksgiving Food Drive for the Friends In Need Food Bank.

This year 14,321 lbs of food was collected – including 450 lbs from Save On Foods.

“The day was perfect,” said food bank executive director Mary Robson about the food drive at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on 207 Street in Maple Ridge on Sept. 24, commending all of the volunteers who took part.

Donations were down slightly from 2021 when a record 16,975 lbs, and in 2020 when volunteers collected 15,680 lbs of food.

Save On Food partnered with the BC Thanksgiving Food Drive again this year, where customers were able to make food or money donations at any of the stores in Maple Ridge or Pitt Meadows.

READ MORE: BC Thanksgiving food drive in Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows breaks last year’s record

ALSO: Maple Ridge food bank to benefit from nationwide grocery chain drive

Robson said they are still in need.

“We have seen an increase in new registrations and re-registrations. It is not just inflation in grocery prices, it is the whole cost of living. People are just not able to make ends meet,” she said.

And, added Robson, their school program numbers are up as well. Although she doesn’t have any updated numbers yet, orders from the schools in the district have increased.

Robson needs donations of: children’s snacks; granola bars; small juice boxes and fruit cups; canned fruit and vegetables; canned tomatoes; Boost and Ensure; canned meat and fish; meal in a tin like chilli, ravioli, stews, and baked beans; Kraft dinner and Side Kicks.


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Colleen Flanagan

About the Author: Colleen Flanagan

I got my start with Black Press Media in 2003 as a photojournalist.
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