CTV Morning Live Holiday Helpers Food Drive raises record $387,000 for Ottawa Food Bank

Ottawa residents, businesses, organizations, emergency services and sports teams have helped fill the shelves at the Ottawa Food Bank.

The CTV Morning Live Holiday Helpers Food Drive raised a record $387,485 on Friday to help support the food bank through the holiday season and into 2025. Additionally, 16,750 lbs. of food was collected.

"A huge number," Rachael Wilson, CEO of the Ottawa Food Bank, said Friday morning.

"An amazing day; absolutely incredible."

"We have to spend $10 million a year on food every year, half of that is fresh. This is going to go so far supporting hundreds of people in our city for weeks to come."

During the three-hour live broadcast on CTV Morning Live, donations of all sizes were dropped off to support the Ottawa Food Bank.  Louise returned to the ByWard Market for the first time in 50 years to make a donation.

“They put a grocery cart for our elevator, so we put the food in there; But I, I wanted to go down in my home stomping ground,” Louise said.

"I always watch the news with CTV. I like their public personalities."

The donations included $10,000 from Doyle Salewski, $102,416 from Capcorp financial, $110,000 from CLV Group/InterRent REIT and $35,000 from Amazon Web Services.

“We always say that everything that we do is, you know, dedicated to giving back to our community and the communities that we work in," Erin Mcevoy of CLV Group/InterRent REIT said. "And the Ottawa Foodbank is just a critical part of our community. And as much as we wish that we didn't need a food bank, as long as we do, we hope to continue donating."

Capcorp Financial makes a $102,000 donation to the CTV Morning Live Holiday Helpers Food Drive in support of the Ottawa Food Bank.

Mary-Anne Boilleu watches CTV Morning Live and also made a donation,

“I like what you do for this, it's a good cause. And keep it up. I like to drink coffee with Rosie and Melissa and Stefan in the morning to hear the news."

Every dollar counts, letting the Ottawa Food Bank buy what’s needed most when it's needed.

"The need in the community right now is the highest we've seen, unfortunately," Wilson said during the CTV Morning Live Holiday Helpers Food Drive. .

"We relay on 98 per cent on donations from the community. We're only able to do the amazing work that we do thanks to the amazing generosity of people in Ottawa."

Wilson says all the donations "warms us up."

"We know Ottawa so incredibly generous and so supportive of the Ottawa Food Bank."

The Ottawa Food Bank says one in four households faced food insecurity in 2023, up from one in seven households in 2022. Thirty-seven per cent of users to the Ottawa Food Bank were children and youth under the age of 18, and 42 per cent of visitors were single adults.

“This is such an important day for us at CTV and Bell Media. We've been doing this for 17 years now, and it's just so heartwarming when you see all of the community come together, come down and donate; lots of big corporate donations and business donations," Peter Angione, Director of News and Information Programming, said.

"But it's the everyday viewer and people who are coming down -- those are so special to us and I absolutely love this, giving back to the community.”

CTV Morning Live host Stefan Keyes added, "When it comes to the Holiday Helper's Food Drive, as someone that has grown up in Ottawa from a low-income household, I know firsthand what it means to struggle; We didn't necessarily lean on the food bank too much, but I certainly went to school with people who needed the breakfast program inside of our elementary school, who may have needed the food bank at times."

"And so, this, especially at this time of year when we're into consumerism and we're gift buying and we're trying to spread our money at the malls, is it's a nice time of year to remember that some people just the basic idea of staying full, making sure that we're feeding one another and putting food on the table and making sure that the cupboards are well stocked.”

Members of the U16 AAA Ottawa Next Level girls basketball team drop off a donation for the CTV Morning Live Holiday Helpers Food Drive. (CTV Morning Live)

The food bank spends $10 million a year on food, and Wilson says financial donations help support those purchases.

"Those cash donations are critical. They help us busy those fresh items that are so expensive, but so needed for the community," Wilson says.

The Ottawa Food Bank shared a list of the most needed items heading into the holiday season. The items include:

• Canned salmon and tuna
• Dried legumes
• Nut butter
• Canned veggies
• Canned fruit
• Diapers
• Pasta

The Ottawa Professional Firefighters Association and firefighters dropped off a donation during the CTV Morning Live Holiday Helpers Food Drive.

Monetary donations can still be made online.

The Holiday Helpers Food Drive is proudly sponsored by Box Me Up and Doyle Salewski.

With files from CTV News Ottawa's Peter Szperling