It seems like yesterday when Edward Milne Community School’s students raked in more than 10,000 food items for the Sooke Food Bank – and guess what, they’re at it again.
Only not it’s not in the midst of the winter or holiday season, hence the name, Spring Out of Hunger, which runs next week April 26 from 5 to 9 p.m.
Think of it like the well-established 10K Tonight food drive, except as the spring edition, said EMCS leadership student and organizer Nick Gakena, who, like many of his other colleagues, behind previous food drives, seek to create more food drives throughout the year and that hunger isn’t limited to winter.
“People were doing a lot of food drives during the winter season, but there weren’t as many in the spring and summer. We wanted to normalize that and have a regular flow of food into the Sooke Food Bank,” Gakena said, adding that they will continue to do 10K Tonight, but keep it as their winter season food drive.
As such, the mantra remains essentially the same: gather as much food from the community in one evening at EMCS, then load it all up in a giant truck and ferry it to the Sooke Food Bank.
“We’re still going for that 10,000 mark. It’s fairly reasonable for us to expect that we can get close to that again,” he said, hoping that even though it’s spring, people will step up like they did last year.
Gakena is certainly not alone; behind him there are 60 Leadership Class colleagues, along with two dozen more volunteers from the general EMCS student body. Still, if anyone is willing to lend a hand or donate, that’s good too.
“People in our community and school can to bring donations anytime, and whatever people can do to help out, we fully welcome that,” he said.
Anyone who would like to donate or volunteer to help out with sorting out the food can call the EMCS number at 250-642-5211, or send an email to vice principal Todd Powell at: tpowell@sd62.bc.ca.