Spotlight on Oakville’s Gift of Giving Back food drive Dec. 5-7

It takes a community to feed a community and Oakville residents – particularly its youth – have taken that philosophy to heart with the annual Gift of Giving Back food drive that aims to support, educate and empower thousands of youth to compassionately give back to their community.

One of the key contributors in the campaign is the Oakville Rangers minor hockey organization which collected 122,000 pounds of food last year and hopes to raise 130,000 pounds this year.

All food collected will be distributed to the Kerr Street Mission, Salvation Army, Food For Life, Halton Women’s Place, ROCK (Reach Out Centre For Kids) and the Compassion Society.

“Many in our community are struggling with making ends meet – and the kids growing up in these families are suffering from many societal issues, including poverty, hunger, lack of housing, and illness,” said hockey club on its website. “These issues affect all of us. So, we want to involve all of our Oakville Ranger families in participating in this amazing food drive.”

Community events are held throughout the year in support of the campaign, with the food drive taking place between September 25 and December 4.

The campaign will get its deserved time in the spotlight December 5, 6 and 7 with events honouring the contributions of the Rangers and Oakville Hornets organizations.

Food and cash donations can be dropped off on those days at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic High School on Dorval Drive. A campaign date with the Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital Campaign’s food drive is also on the slate, with a date to be determined.

Founded in Burlington in 2005, The Gift of Giving Back is now the largest food drive of its kind in Canada. The campaign was expanded to Oakville and Brampton in 2015 and has collected 4.3 million pounds of food since 2007 – a direct community benefit of more than $1.8 million.

The campaign was founded on four principles:

• To encourage compassion in young people for those in need or in crisis.
• To connect them to the hard-working agencies which support the vulnerable in the communities and also to the larger community institutions.
• To inspire kids to lift other kids up through their own work and actions.
• To motivate them and their families to embrace community traditions of volunteerism.

Here’s a list of important food items that the food drive is looking for:

Most needed:

• Tomato Products (pasta sauce, crushed tomato, diced tomato, tomato paste)
• Canned Fruit (peaches, pineapple, fruit cocktail, pear)
• Canned Chili
• Pasta (regular and gluten-free)
• Canned Fish/Meat (turkey, chicken, luncheon meat, corned beef, salmon, sardines)

Other Items:

• Cooking Oil (plastic bottle)
• Broth
• Canned Vegetables (corn, mushrooms, peas)