Tenants in 181 apartment buildings around the city set a record for gathering 126,000 pounds of food for the Ottawa Food Bank last week, breaking the previous record by 6,000 pounds.
“This is a beautiful sight to see when we think of the dry summer months ahead,” said Food Bank executive director Peter Tilley about the stacks of wire cages containing donations organized by the Eastern Ontario Landlord Organization.
“The Incredible Wall of Food — it’s an amazing feat,” Tilley said. “Hopefully this’ll last us a good month.”
The food was collected over just three hours last Tuesday evening. The next day, Rogers Cable Communications donated 33 vans and their drivers’ time to deliver all the cans, boxes and bags to the Food Bank warehouse where it was stacked into a wall, just for fun and the visual impact.
Now they need volunteers to sort all the food into boxes that go out to the 131 member agencies the food bank supports.
Harry Whitehead, 81, paused in his food sorting to consider the wall that included Cheerios, V-8 juice, soup, beans, toilet paper, Kraft Dinner, peanut butter, fruit salad, tea, coffee and spaghetti noodles.
“This is the biggest we’ve ever had,” said Whitehead, who has volunteered for the past 15 years for “only” four hours every day.
Tilley said agencies have reported a 10 per cent increase in people needing food for the first time. But he said the public has responded well.
“They’re aware the times ahead could be tough so we think the public’s coming through,” he said.
Karen Keskinen, Rogers’ community relations manager, said she’s seen the Food Bank when it’s bare.
“To have a wall of food here, completely filled up, really warms my heart,” she said. “This is a need all year round.”
