Saturday morning volunteers will be combing the city picking up donations for the 19th annual Welland food drive, and organizers running the event want to make sure no one forgets about it.
“There is a need to continue creating awareness of the food drive,” says food drive committee member, Crystal Kapteyn. “Sometimes people are so busy in their lives that they don’t realize that it is food drive time.”
Kapteyn and about 12 volunteers blitzed the city with 150 food drive reminder signs Monday night, and she hopes having “a visual reminder” will increase food donations.
“It is imperative to the city that we have the food drive,” she says. “We need food donations or else the food banks would not be able to support the amount of people that need help.”
She says the food drive is a success each year because of the “kindness of the people within our community who give their time to help.”
Volunteers run the entire food drive event from beginning to end.
“The food drive wouldn’t even be a possibility without volunteers,” Kapteyn says. “The entire food drive is volunteer based. From the committee to the hundreds of people it takes on drive day to make this thing happen.”
Mona Lessard, of Welland, was one of the volunteers helping Kapteyn put up the food drive signs.
She brought her entire family out to help because she wants her children to realize how important it is to help the community.
“Our family is quite fortunate,” she says. “I want my kids to know that it is good to help others in need.”
She hopes that it will become a family tradition and they “can make thinking of others a part of their every day life.”
Kapteyn says volunteers are still needed to help sort food on drive day at Auberge Richelieu. Interested people can call (905) 714-9151 or visit www.wellandfooddrive.com.
Published in Welland Tribune -November 4, 2010
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