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ShareFood and volunteers needed at food bank
By Pirjo Raits - Sooke News Mirror
Published: October 07, 2008 5:00 PM
Sooke is a community known for its generosity, caring attitude and friendliness. Each and every year residents give. They give of their time and money for those less fortunate or those who need help.
Sooke is also ranked up there as one of the communities with a very large volunteer base, but those volunteers are aging and the base is shrinking.
The Sooke Food Bank runs entirely on volunteer time and effort.
“We are a volunteer-oriented community,” says Barry Gifford, president of the Sooke Food Bank Society. “We need to recruit new people who can come for a couple of hours three times a month in the mornings to prepare hampers.”
Those hampers are what people who need help get. Generally they are full of non-perishable items like canned goods, pasta, soups and cereal. Roughly 150 people, from East Sooke to Port Renfrew, come by for the hampers.
“The shelves are down right now,” said Gifford. “It’s a slower giving time.”
Gifford said the food bank could use soup and cereal, but all the food stores are down.
“We’re very fortunate the bakeries are good to us,” he said.
Of course, cash is also acceptable and the volunteers use it to purchase what they need.
If anyone can give some time to help the Sooke Food Bank, call Barry Gifford at 642-7666.
