The Executive Director of the Kamloops Food Bank says officials will likely taken another look at distributing some sort to bag for future food drives.

Bernadette Siracky says Kamloopsians donated about 30,000 lbs of food during the fall food drive this past weekend, which was a little short of their goal.

it was the 23rd bi-annual food drive in the Tournament Capital, but the first where no yellow donation bags were distributed to residents.

“The call to action that a bag gives people is just incomparable. We’ve been trying the any bag will do tag,” Siracky said. “Now the thing about that tag is it did get delivered to everybody’s household. So that’s a really good distribution strategy. We just need to figure out how to get a bag to every household.”

Speaking on the NL Morning News, she admitted that the yellow bags also served as a visual reminder for people.

“We’ve had huge success with this drive in years past. I think the donation of one bag of food seems to have been really palatable for folks,” Siracky added. “So yeah, we’re going to have some meetings and discussions around how to maybe put a fresh face on it, but 30,000 lbs of food is no small matter Kamloops.”

If the bags do come back, Siracky says officials don’t want to use plastic bags, and so there will be discussions on what a suitable alternative could be.

Donations Always Welcome

Meanwhile, people who still want to donate food are being encouraged to reach out as there has been an increase in people using the food bank this month – more so than normal.

Bernadette Siracky says last Monday morning, there were more than 60 people lined up outside before the food bank opened.

“So, we are noting lineups earlier than normal, more individuals that normal in line,” added Siracky. “We aren’t quite sure if this is going to be a pattern yet, but it certainly is of note.”

She says the food bank serves about 150 households on average during each four-hour session when it is open.

Officials will be gathering information to see if the increase this month is sign of things to come in the future, or if it was a one off.

– With files from Colton Davies

What a fantastic weekend! We are overjoyed with the amount of volunteers who participated in this year’s Rotary Fall Food Drive! Thank you #Kamloops for coming out in record numbers❤️ Together you have brought in 30,000lbs of food! We are so proud of this community!#anybagwilldo pic.twitter.com/hiE3PSTtuv

— Kamloops Food Bank (@kamfoodbank) September 23, 2019