The cupboards aren’t bare but they sure could use some bolstering at Duncan’s food bank, the Cowichan Valley Basket Society.
“It’s summertime so our shelves are lower as far as donations in both cash and food,” said Colleen Fuller, the food banks’s manager. “In the summer, we always welcome fresh produce and vegetables because that’s not something traditionally that people think about,” she added.
So those with gardens and fruit trees overflowing with extra zucchini, tomatoes and apples or plums, you know where to send them!
And while they’re pleased to ask for donations through the media and through organized events, the Cowichan Valley Basket Society does not ever solicit businesses directly or go door to door asking for donations.
“We don’t solicit any kind of donations,” Fuller said. “We do have many donators who give out of their generosity and not with a thought for misrepresentation.”
So businesses especially are asked to keep that in mind in the event they’re approached by someone claiming to need supplies to help them increase their own donations to the food bank. There have been recent reports of this occurring.
“The Cowichan Valley Basket Society has not, and never has, authorized anyone to make such requests,” Fuller said.
If your business is approached in such a manner, please notify the Food Bank at 250-746-1566 so that appropriate action can be taken.
The Cowichan Valley Basket Society is a volunteer-run charitable organization providing approximately 450 food hampers each month to those in need. Its soup kitchen dispenses approximately 2,600, sandwiches and 2,300 bowls of soup each month and runs a salad bar six days a week. It’s all done through the kindness and generosity of members of the community.
The next big food drive isn’t until Sep. 14.
“We will be distributing bags to fill for the Church of Latter Day Saints as they have their B.C. Thanksgiving Food Drive then and that goes a long way to filling our shelves,” Fuller said. “But for July and August we are a little bit low.”