By David F. Rooney The first night of the two-day Emergency Services Fight Back Against Hunger Food Drive went off without a hitch on Wednesday, September 16. Hundreds of volunteers canvassed city neighbourhoods for generous donations to the Community Connections Food Bank and they will be back at it this evening (Thursday, September 17) to conclude the two-day benefit for the Community Connections Food Bank. To say this is an annual success understates its value to the community. Besides the dozens of police officers, firefighters, paramedics and wardens you’d expect to see in this campaign there are whole families, Girl Guides, Army Cadets, hockey players, teachers, office workers and people from every walk of life, all united in their desire to help Revelstoke’s less fortunate residents. This effort takes week to plan and organize — much of that work done by Krista Kallio — and it bears real fruit. Patti Larson, director of Community Connections outreach programs, told the crowd that gathered at the RCMP detachment that over the years it has been held, this food drive has resulted in 40,000 pounds of food donations and $20,000 in cash donation. That’s remarkable and everyone who participated or who helped out with a donation should feel proud of that effort. Here are a few images from Wednesday evening’s campaign: Volunteers gathered by the RCMP detachment on Wednesday evening for the first evening of the Fifth Annual Emergency Services Fight Back Against Hunger Food Drive. RCMP officers, firefighters, BC Ambulance paramedics and just plain folks, including members of the Grizzlies hockey team and staff from companies like RCTV/YourLink devoted their time and efforts to canvas city neighbourhoods. The food drive resumes Thursday evening. Please click on the image to see a larger version. David F. Rooney photo Empty boxes await the return of food drive volunteers bearing people’s offerings to help the Community Connections Food Bank feed the poor and hungry in our city. David F. Rooney photo Organizer Krista Kallio goes over the rules for the waiting crowd. Canvassers must stay safe, clearly identify themselves and their purpose to homeowners and always thank them for their generosity and time. Krista has a lot of experience organizing this event so that it runs like clockwork. David F. Rooney photo Here’s another view of the crowd listening to Krista. Please click on the image to see a larger version. David F. Rooney photo Alexa Powell (right) accepts a food bank donation at a home in Arrow Heights while out canvassing with her parents, sister Karsyn (left) and friend Sani Supinen. David F. Rooney photo Karen and Alexa’s mom, Shawn Filipchuck, is not the kind of person to stand on the sidelines and let her children do all the work canvassing for the food drive. She visited her share of houses, too. David F. Rooney photo Canvassing for the Food Bank was a real family affair. Dylan Powell collected plenty of donations, including some cash offerings like this one. David F. Rooney photo All the food Shawn, Dylan and the girls collected ended up in the back of their van. David F. Rooney photo Collecting food and cash donations was just the first part of this massive city-wide campaign. Everything was dropped off at the RCMP detachment where volunteers like Carol Palladino sorted everything for later storage. David F. Rooney photo Once sorted, food items were organized into different boxes for storage. This extremely well-organized event is a marvellous show of support for the Community Connections Food Bank and helps tide it over in the autumn and early winter. My hat goes off to everyone who participated in the drive. But they’re not done yet! This is a two-day affair and will conclude on Thursday, September 17. David F. Rooney photo
