Bombers to hold annual Purolator Tackle Hunger Food Drive at Thursday's game
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Winnipeg Blue Bombers will hold their annual Purolator Tackle Hunger Food Drive before they take on the B.C. Lions at IG Field on Thursday with the goal of tackling food insecurity.
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While the need is great every year, it has never so urgent than it is now.
“People say this all the time that the need has never been greater but it’s true,” said Harvest Manitoba’s Stephanie Mikos. “We are seeing some shocking numbers for the first time in Harvest Manitoba’s history. Every little bit helps.”
Fans are encouraged to bring a non-perishable food item to the game, make a tap donation on site, or make a donation online anytime at pthdonation2023.com. Now in its 20th year, the Purolator Tackle Hunger program will deliver all food items and monetary donations collected at the game to Harvest Manitoba. In those 20 years, more than a million pounds of food have been collected.
“Harvest Manitoba is seeing record numbers ever since COVID,” said Mikos. “We’re actually buying food for the first time in history. In March of this year, we reached a record of feeding 47,000 families per month so there’s a really great need. Just being able to raise as much food as possible is really, really important to feed these families.”
Harvest Manitoba feeds more than 17,000 families each month, twice as many families compared to pre-pandemic numbers. Of their food bank clients, 25% are those with full time jobs.
“If you’re working a minimum wage job and after paying rent and bills, there’s not enough to put food on the table especially if you have children,” said Mikos.
More than half of first-time food bank users to Harvest Manitoba were Ukrainian immigrants and displaced Ukrainians, Mikos said.
“Even if it’s just a tin for the bin that can go a really long way to help feed families,” said Mikos. “We have a lot of families coming in for emergency food assistance that just aren’t able to eat or aren’t eating for days. We have mothers who aren’t eating and skipping meals in order to feed their children. Every little bit helps.”
Fans can pick up red Purolator food bags from Save-On-Foods to fill up with non-perishable food items. Red bags were also handed out at the last Bombers home game.
gdawkins@postmedia.com
Twitter: @SunGlenDawkins
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