A formal partnership announced earlier this month in London will result in locally-grown chicken being delivered to food banks across Ontario, including the St. Thomas Elgin Food Bank.
Over one million Ontario residents last year visited a food bank.
That indicator of a surging affordability crisis in the province was contained in data released last month by hunger-relief organization Feed Ontario.
Digging further into the report, food banks in the province were visited 7.6 million times over the year, an increase of 134 per cent from 2019-20.
Karen McDade, Manager of Public Relations and Administration with the local food bank explained who is involved in the partnership.
Maple Leaf Foods and the Chicken Farmers of Ontario (CFO) will collaborate with Feed Ontario to enable farmers to donate up to 300 birds each year to food banks.
The partnership supports the CFO’s Farmers to Food Banks program.
McDade was in London for the announcement.
Since 2015, the Farmers to Food Banks Program has helped deliver over one million meals annually to the province’s food banks.
The partnership is a blessing for the food banks which are experiencing unprecedented demand this year, noted McDade .
McDade pointed out that from the beginning of this year through the end of August, the local food bank fed almost 17,000 individuals. A figure McDade calls “staggering.”
To learn how to assist the St. Thomas Elgin Food Bank, visit http://stthomaselginfoodbank.org
For more information on Feed Ontario, visit http://feedontario.ca
