Almost 40% of food bank clients are children. With winter upon us, Business Cares needs your support.
Last year your support did get through! Your generosity helped us deliver 627,000 pounds worth of food to the London and Area Food Bank in 2023. And your support allows us to help over 40 other programs and social agencies with the food given to the London Food Bank. This includes:
- Meal programs like the Soup Kitchen and school breakfast programs
- Drop in programs like Youth Action Centre; and
- Other programs with Anova, Atlohsa, 519 Pursuit, Glen Cairn Resource Centre, Mission Services, the Unity Project and Y.O.U.
Your donations have also allowed us to support the purchase of multiple greenhouses, including Allison’s Garden, a facility behind the London Food Bank that has produced thousands of pounds of fresh food this past year.
The Business Cares Food Drive Committee would like to thank you for supporting the Food Drive.
Whether you choose to make a donation or register your business for the Food Drive, we appreciate your help in recognizing that taking care of business means taking care of people.
So where do the funds go?
The funds donated to the Business Cares program support the following programs:
- Community Harvest: A program to increase the amount of fresh fruit and vegetables donated from local farmers to the food bank. In its tenth year, 677,000 pounds (value of $2.2 million) of fresh local fruit and vegetables have been donated so far in 2023. This is up from 315,000 pounds last year.
- Community ReFresh: A program run in partnership with the City of London to pick up fresh product (fruit, vegetables, dairy, bakery, meats) from grocery stores that is not saleable, but is still safe and edible. Business Cares has provided the funds for the refrigerated van. 32 participating stores have recovered 525,700 pounds to date this year. This is double from previous years.
- Milk and Egg Purchases: Business Cares provides 80% of the funds to make sure that everyone receives eggs and milk in their hamper. (The Egg and Dairy Farmers, Processors, and Packagers provide the other 20%);
- Baby Food and Other Food Purchases: Volunteers purchase monthly baby formula tailored to the current demand. Also, throughout the year we get opportunities to buy food (both perishable and non-perishable) that is of great value.;
- Food Security Programs: Encourages the GROWING of food in London through Allison’s Garden, Community Greenhouses and the Green Wall Project. 26 greenhouses (to community groups) and 310 green walls (to individuals) have been distributed to date.