With hundreds of cars lined up on Tuesday, Dec. 17 the 100 Mile House Food Bank was a hub of activity during its annual Christmas Hamper Distribution Day.
Danny Williams, the president of the food bank, said that he and 25 volunteers, including District of 100 Mile House Coun. Donna Barnett and Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Lorne Doerkson, were hard at work the entire day filling hampers and loading them into cars. He said everyone seemed happy with what they got and that they included a $20 Save-On-Foods gift card with each hamper. All told Williams said they gave out 212 hampers from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
"We were really busy and the line up was from the foodbank, beside the school and eight up to Sunrise Ford," Williams said. "It went pretty smooth."
Williams said this year the food bank had their clients park along the side of Alpine Avenue rather than in the Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School parking lot. In past years Williams remarked the school has been fine with them doing that and it kept the lineup out of the way, but this year the school requested they did not use their property.
"We cooperated and we ran the traffic and looked after it," Williams remarked.
Looking ahead to 2025 Williams anticipates the demand for the food bank's services to continue to grow under the current economic environment with the high costs of fuel and food. He added he hopes community donations of food and money continue to help them meet this demand.
"It will enable us to keep up the pace we're at right now," Williams remarked. "The merchants in town here have really been fantastic as far as the donations go and a lot of individuals have sent us donations, it's been fantastic."
If the foodbank's client list continues to grow, Williams acknowledged there may come a day when the foodbank will have to start making cuts to their program and go from two hamper days a month to one. In the meantime, however, he's still hopeful donations will be able to meet this demand.
"I'd just like to thank the community for all their support. We'll do the best we can going forward."
