The London Foodbank is in its 28th year of existence. It was first opened on January 1st 1987 and since has been a big influence in helping the low income families in London. Its mission is to help a caring community by sharing its food resources. It donates over 1.7 million pounds of foods to 20 other food agencies in the city such as the Salvation Army store. The Foodbank will host three food drives each year in the spring, summer, and fall while it gets most of its food donations in the winter. The organization is completely funded by the community with money and food donations.
Mike Blogson is the food coordinator at the London Foodbank and he says that the organization has seen an increase amount of families requesting food assistance since the recession hit Canada. “We saw a spike in our needs since the recession hit in 2008, 2009. We started averaging 36,000 families a month but it went down in 2014 and 2015, but now in the first three months of 2016, we have seen 35,000 families a month.” Blogson has also seen an increase amount of Syrian families come in to the Foodbank and that they certainly would like to see more vegetarian- friendly foods.
The Foodbank also receives a great amount of volunteer support whether it’s through donations or coming in and assisting in the packaging of food bundles. A typical week will see over 200 volunteers. If you would like to volunteer, you are asked to call the Foodbank and make an appointment or visit their site at www. londonfoodbank.ca and see how you can help.