Durham communities from Pickering to Brock Township coming together to fight hunger

Published September 6, 2023 at 2:25 pm

The Region of Durham and its municipalities are coming together to help raise awareness, food donations and funds to fight hunger in the community during National Hunger Month.

Hunger affects individuals, seniors, and families throughout the Region and as Durham continues to grow and food prices increase, more people are experiencing homelessness and/or using food banks and related services than ever before. Feed the Need in Durham, which distributes food to local food banks and hunger relief programs, has seen the number of people accessing their services double over the past three years, reaching 10,000 clients per month.

From September 5-28 there will be numerous drop-off locations located throughout Durham to make it easy for residents, businesses and community groups to drop off non-perishable food items. Drop-off locations in Durham include:

All donations will be used by Feed the Need in Durham and area food banks to support local families in need.

Residents can also increase their impact by donating online. For every $1 donated, Feed the Need in Durham can collect, store, and distribute three meals and other needed products to reach those in need.

In 2022, the Region and area municipalities raised food and funds equivalent to nearly 49,000 meals for Feed the Need and local food banks. This year’s goal is to beat that record by 10 per cent.

Feed the Need in Durham collects, stores, and distributes two million pounds of food annually to 65 emergency food providers and five school nutrition programs across Durham Region.

Between now and 2046, Durham Region’s population is projected to grow by almost 40 per cent. Currently there almost 300 people on the Region’s homelessness ‘by-name list.’ up from about 209 people in December 2021. This list keeps track of people experiencing chronic homelessness and includes individuals, seniors, and families.

View Feed the Need in Durham’s Wish List of most desired food items here.

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