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www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday March 26, 2008 - 17 Poor donations worry food bank officials By Angela Blackburn OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF With only days to go, officials at Oakville's Fareshare food bank are worried as donations in the all-important Easter food drive are well below last year's level. "Based on figures I had at the end of last week versus the two previous years, we're down 27 per cent, which is significant," said volunteer director Dudley Clarke. The drive began Saturday, March 15 and continues through this Saturday, March 29. Though collections looked promising at the outset, they have slowed considerably and ground to a halt over the Easter weekend. "I really can't put a handle on it," said Clarke as to why collections are down. It has been a continuing trend over the past couple of food drives and is starting to worry those who volunteer their time to operate the food bank for less fortunate local families. "I know the Daily Bread Food Bank (in Toronto) is having exactly the same problem, it's literally thousands of pounds below what's expected," said Clarke. "We're not going to run short of food, but I'm a little concerned because we have seven months to go before the next food drive (at Thanksgiving)," said Clarke. Fareshare depends on donations, primarily those collected in the Easter food drive, to supply enough food items to its clients. Though donations are welcome and collected year-round, the Easter food drive is the larger of the two annual drives held by the food bank. LIESA KORTMANN / OAKVILLE BEAVER STOCKING UP: Fareshare food bank volunteer June Cregan helps sort out the food at the Speers Road food bank. Its Easter food drive continues to Saturday and hopes are high that donations will pick up as the drive is down nearly 30 per cent compared to last year. Clarke is at a loss to explain the continuing downtrend in donations. "We had the same kind of problem with the food drive last Thanksgiving. There's something going on there," said Clarke. Thanksgiving's drive did not reap its traditional harvest and given that fact, Fareshare was really counting on Easter drive donations and now those are falling well short of expectations. Clarke said contributing factors may be that Easter came early this year, seemingly on the heels of Christmas with residents still cold and fatigued from that occasion. "People just aren't in the mood," said Clarke who is hoping that mood will change over the next few days. While the food drive officially wraps up on Saturday, March 29, donations can be made at any time of the year. About 320 families or more than 1,000 people, half of whom are children, are visiting Fareshare monthly this year -- up from 317 in 2007. That's not far off the 350 families that were visiting each month during the peak of the recession in the early 1990s. The two annual food drives aim to collect items needed year round. Cash donations also help as the food bank uses the money to buy items should it run low and to purchase fresh foods like milk, meat and produce. Food donations can be dropped off at the food bank located at 1240 Speers Rd., Unit 6, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Monday to Saturday, all Oakville fire stations and in all Oakville supermarkets where collection bins have been provided by Fareshare. While all non-perishable donations are welcome with open arms, instead of the usual pasta and canned soup type of donation, Fareshare would prefer to receive the non-perishable items it usually runs short of including: canned fruit, canned vegetables (except corn), cookies and crackers, vegetable oil, canned stew, junior baby food, baby formula and desserts. Cash donations are used to provide mothers with vouchers redeemable at local supermarkets for milk and fresh fruit for their children. The Easter food drive helps Fareshare collect much of the 75 to 80 per cent of the food it provides to families in need over the entire year. Fareshare, established in 1988, will mark its 20th year in operation this year and receives no government funding. It is run entirely by the volunteers and depends on donations. For information or to donate, visit Fareshare at 1240 Speers Rd., Unit 6 or call 905-847-3988. Volunteers sought for introduction to CSAW Canadians in Support of Afghan Women (CSAW) needs volunteers. It will hold an Introduction to CSAW meeting on Wednesday, April 2. The meeting will be held from 10-11:45 a.m. at the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) Halton office located at 4475 North Service Rd., Suite 101, Burlington. CSAW needs volunteers to make presentations in the community in order to raise awareness of the plight of women and children in Afghanistan, sell and market Afghan goods, raise money to pay teachers' salaries to help sustain the education of 5,000 girls and the libraries of Afghanistan and present a human rights program in schools using the story of Afghanistan as the model. For more information call Bev at 905-827-8165 or Sherry at 905-337-3662. Public invited to learn about graffiti Oakville's Trafalgar Community Policing Committee is inviting the public to learn about graffiti. What Are the Socio-Economic Impacts? will be the topic of its meeting on Tuesday, April 1. The meeting will be held at the Iroquois Ridge Community Centre at 1051 Glenashton Dr. in the Library Program Room at 7 p.m. For information contact Janice Wright at 905-582-7702. FOOT PAIN? Roger D. Newell, D. Pod. 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