No Frills gets ready for spring food drive

You’ll see a shopping cart sitting at the front of Gord’s No Frills in Saskatoon.

It’s a sign that the store’s annual spring food drive has begun.

Owner Gordon Wiebe said the company has partnered with the Saskatoon Food Bank and Learning Centre for the past several years and hosts food drives around three times a year, aiming to fill the cart with donations.

“We give to them all the time,” Wiebe said, noting that products from the store are donated year-round to the food bank to be used before they expire.

(Mia Holowaychuk/650 CKOM)

Wiebe said shoppers in the area have always been generous, and every year the cart is nearly filled. Last Christmas season, he said the store donated 400 pounds of food to those in need.

Wiebe noted there are many families with children and teenagers who are struggling to afford groceries.

“It’s tough,” he said.

Laurie O’Connor, executive director of the Saskatoon Food Bank, said the timing couldn’t be better for food donations.

“This particular time of the year is a bit of a stretch for us,” she said. “It’s great that we have a corporate leader turning the attention to the need.”

She said there has been higher food bank usage country-wide recently, and the Saskatoon food bank serves more than 20,000 people a month. Around 40 per cent of them are children, she added.

The donated food is used to fill up food hampers, O’Connor said, and the food bank ensures all food groups are included.

O’Connor said inflation has been affecting donations to the food bank, and she suspects there will be fewer donations to the food bank this year in general.

Wiebe said he’s also seen inflation’s effects on customers at the store, with an increasing trend of flier shopping.

O’Connor said the food bank is always looking for donations of food items that are packed full of nutrition and easy to cook. Those include canned protein, pasta, sauce and hearty soups.

“Food security is a shared responsibility, and it isn’t on the shoulders of any one agency, but we all need to contribute to a better way (for) a more vibrant community,” O’Connor said.

The food drive runs until April 16.