It’s a holiday tradition that makes a big difference to those need. The 35th annual Project Porchlight Food Drive in support of the Salvation Army takes place on Wednesday, December 6th, starting at 6:00 pm. Fire trucks, with the assistance of the OPP, EMS, Public Works, and Motorcyclists of Muskoka, will be going house-to-house to collect non-perishable food donations.
Residents are asked to turn their porchlight on and place their non-perishable food donations at the end of their driveway or on their porch where they will be collected.
Items especially needed include:
- Peanut butter
- Jam
- Canned meats
- Canned fruit
- Canned vegetables
- Instant oatmeal
- Hamburger Helper
- Granola bars
- Juice
- Boxed mac ‘n’ cheese
- Pasta
If you would rather drop food donations off in person, there will be bins placed outside fire stations during the day for drop-offs. Bags for packing your food donations will be handed out at various grocery stores throughout our communities.
705BLACKFLY.COM will once again be joining the Magnetawan Fire Department as they collect food donations. To see the video of last year’s event go to: https://705blackfly.com/project-porchlight-firefighter-food-drive/
A report by Feed Ontario released earlier this week indicates the number of people who used Ontario food banks rose 38 percent last year, which it says is the largest single-year increase recorded by the province’s food bank network. It also stated that more than 800,000 people in the province turned to emergency food support between April 1, 2022, and March 31, 2023.
The report says first-time visitors accounted for two out of five people who used food banks – a 41 percent increase from the previous year. The document says food bank usage has gone up for the last seven years in a row, and notes more workers are turning to food banks, with one in six food bank visitors citing employment as their main source of income in the period covered by the report. That represents a 37 percent increase over the previous year and an 82 percent increase over 2016-17.
