A Williams Lake church is stepping up to organize a food drive for the Salvation Army.
Salvation Army (SA) community ministries director Tamara Robinson said the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints contacted her to let her know they were planning the drive.
Church members will be delivering bags and flyers from Sept. 16 to 19 and then collecting the food on Saturday, Sept. 21, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., Robinson said.
"We are serving over 1,800 meals through out breakfast and lunch program in the community kitchen," Robinson said, referring to statistics from August 2024. "We have over 1,300 visits to our drop-in centre."
The SA is also providing about 100 showers a month and 65 loads of client laundry is done free of charge.
"Our share shelf is seeing over 700 people come to pick up fresh bread and produce daily."
Through the month of August a total 17,730 pounds of food was given out through the SA hamper program.
Items the food bank could use include cereal, canned beans, Kraft Dinner, peanut butter, jam, canned fruit, soups and pasta.
Normally the Williams Lake Fire Department holds a Christmas in July food drive for the Salvation Army but the River Valley Wildfire on July 21, and subsequent hot-spot monitoring extinguished this year's drive.
Director of protective services Evan Dean said the fire department had everything in place and had very much wanted to go through with it.
"We quickly made a change in hopes the public would make donations, but it doesn't sound like many people were able to make it there," he said.
Dean noted the fire department members are working on their fall schedule and are hoping to fit in another food drive at some point before December.
Robinson said the Salvation Army food bank has been very busy.
