Londoners are being asked to pull on their gloves and grab a shovel to "grow a row" of vegetables for the food bank.
The initiative was unveiled as part of the launch of the 21st annual London Cares Curb Hunger Food Drive at the Oxford St. EnviroDepot on Wednesday. City and food bank officials are challenging homeowners to plant a row of produce in their gardens to be donated to the London Food Bank at harvest time.
"What's happening in London and across the country is this whole move toward fresh food," said Glen Pearson, co-executive director of the London Food Bank. "It's not something you can just get in stores, it's something you can grow on your own accord."
This isn't the first time Londoners have been encouraged to plant vegetables for the food bank. A similar program was first introduced in the city more than 15 years ago but fizzled out over time.
"One of the key things we noticed was that the original program wasn't directly connected with a food drive," said Jay Stanford, director of environment, fleet and solid waste for the city. "So for this program this year with the London Cares Curb Hunger Food Drive, it became a welcome addition to tie in with what we are trying to do in the summer months, stock the shelves but summer time is your growing time so the fit was just perfect."
The city has already found ten families to participate in the program, with Stanford confident they will easily reach their target of 50 families.
"There are gardens out there right now that have been planted over the last week or two. I think people will be very, very keen," said Stanford. "The food bank has a good email database of volunteers and some might find that this is actually an easier way to participate."
Throughout the food drive's nine-day run, residents can also go the traditional route of dropping off non-perishable food donations at local grocery stores and London fire halls, or place them in a bag with a ribbon beside their blue box on their designated recycling day.
Curbside food donation collection will begin Friday with Zone B. It continues until June 17.
Last year, 43,430 lbs of food was donated during the drive to the food bank, which serves an average of 3,421 families a month. Despite that large demand for service, the food bank doesn't set a specific goal for the food drives.
"When we had our very first food drive back in 1986, we were told to expect 40,000 lbs worth of food. We ended up getting 240,000 lbs worth of food. We were swamped, we didn't know what to do. But I learned on that day and that week this is one fantastic community. They just look for an opportunity to give," said Pearson.
Londoners wanting to sign up for the grow a row program can do so by clicking here.
Curbside collection schedule:
Friday, June 9 Zone B Monday, June 12 Zone C Tuesday, June 13 Zone D Wednesday, June 14 Zone E Thursday, June 15 Zone F Friday, June 16 Zone A Saturday, June 17 Donations still accepted at Fire Stations & local grocery stores
