Today is the CTV Morning Live Holiday Helpers Food Drive. Here's how you can help
Today is the annual CTV Morning Live Holiday Helpers Food Drive to support the Ottawa Food Bank and ensure that no family goes hungry this holiday season.
You can help by donating non-perishable food items and dropping them off during our special broadcast on Friday from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. at 87 George Street.
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," Rachael Wilson, CEO of the Ottawa Food Bank, told CTV Morning Live Friday morning.
"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.
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
Monetary donations can also be made online. The Ottawa Food Bank says cash donations help purchase needed items throughout the year.
The Holiday Helpers Food Drive is proudly sponsored by Box Me Up and Doyle Salewski.
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