Thanks to our donors who have dropped in over the Holiday season to make a donation and volunteers who have come in to sort food! We can’t include all of you here, but we do have a few photos to share!

Chabad Jewish Discovery Centre built a CANORAH!

Supperworks brought in 2 full holiday meals!

The Home Depot team came in to sort food and install a new kitchenette!

Frank from Gerdau Ameristeel put his Santa hat on to bring in a donation!

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The “Fill a Cubicle” competition heated up until the early hours of the morning on Tuesday December 21st, as teams scrambled to increase donations in benefit of The Mississauga Food Bank. In the end, an anonymous judge has voted to retain the 10th Floor’s bragging rights with a second consecutive win in the annual event. Nevertheless, the real winners are the families that are to benefit from these generous contributions during this holiday season.

In a spirited effort, the 11th floor raised $1028 in non-perishable food.

The 10th floor raised an impressive $1250 in canned goods.

The donations have yet to be weighed, but stay tuned to find out if we beat last year’s impressive 2,035 pounds.

UPDATE: The donations were weighed, and came in a 2,994 lbs! Congrats to the GE Capital teams!

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The Mississauga Food Bank requests financial support to distribute food to those in need

Mississauga, ON  December 15, 2010

The mission of The Mississauga Food Bank is to fight hunger and feed hope in Mississauga. This is done by supplying food to the city’s seven food banks, plus shelters, breakfast programs, drop in centres and hot meal programs.

This fall The Mississauga Food Bank raised a record amount of food in the Fall Food Drive – over 134,000 lbs – and the food continues to flood in as individuals and corporations across Mississauga show their generosity in feeding their neighbours.

But how much does it cost to distribute this food?

Once the food is donated to The Mississauga Food Bank, what does it take to get it into the hands of those who are hungry?

• A facility to inspect, sort, store and inventory the food
• Trucks to deliver the food
• Staff to manage and implement this whole process, to ensure the food gets to those who need it, as well as administrate, fundraise for, and manage the food bank
• Supplies to package the food
• Efforts to raise awareness and funds for the food bank
• Administration supplies and activities to run the business side of the food bank including phones, internet, computers and office supplies

Chris Hatch, Executive Director of The Mississauga Food Bank, said, “Thank you so much to the community for all your incredible work in donating food to us this Fall – we have enough to feed families through the winter thanks to your generosity.” He went on to say, “We ask residents of Mississauga to feed their hungry neighbours by putting a family they may not know on their holiday shopping list this year.”

As we approach the end of the year, $39,328 is required to support the distribution of food to families in need. The Mississauga Food Bank has set a holiday fundraising goal of $50,000, and as of December 15, had received $10,672.

Donations can be given online at www.themississaugafoodbank.org, or by cheque to 36 – 2550 Goldenridge Road, Mississauga ON L4X 2S3.

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For more information on The Mississauga Food Bank, visit www.themississaugafoodbank.org or contact Meghan Nicholls at 905.270.5589 x226 or meghan@themississaugafoodbank.org.

The Mississauga Food Bank is the largest food distribution program in Mississauga, Ontario supporting over 12,000 clients each month through over 108 member agency programs, including the city’s seven food banks. The Mississauga Food Bank no longer provides food directly to clients, but sources, manages and distributes 2.4 million pounds of food each year valued at over $6 million. The Mississauga Food Bank operates from a 10,000 square foot leased warehouse with eight full-time staff members, many dedicated volunteers (20,000 hours/year), and a fleet of refrigerated delivery trucks.

The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Port Credit Detachment Auxiliary Unit is pleased to announce a successful conclusion to their annual “Cram the Cruiser” Food Drive, which ran from November 20, 2010 until December 12, 2010.

With the generous support of customers, our Auxiliary community volunteers “crammed” more than 50 police cruisers with donated food and collected more than $12,000 in support of The Mississauga Food Bank (www.themississaugafoodbank.org) at participating Mississauga Loblaw, Real Canadian Superstore, and No Frills grocery store locations.

Thanks so much!

Our mission is to fight hunger and feed hope in Mississauga. We do this by supplying food to the city’s seven food banks, plus shelters, breakfast programs, drop in centres and hot meal programs.

This fall we raised a record amount of food in our Fall Food Drive – over 134,000 lbs – and the food just keeps rolling in as individuals and corporations across Mississauga show their generosity in feeding their neighbours. THANK YOU!

But how much does it cost to distribute this food?

Once the food is donated to The Mississauga Food Bank, what does it take to get it into the hands of those who are hungry?

• For start, we need a warehouse to inspect, sort, store and inventory the food. This costs $123,930 each year or $10,327/month.
• Then we need trucks to deliver the food. This costs $23,380 each year, or $1,948/month.
• We also need staff to manage this whole process, to ensure the food gets to those who need it. This requires $236,600 each year, or $19,716/month.
• Supplies are needed to package the food. The cost for this is $3,000/year or $250/month.
• And finally, we need volunteers to help us do all this work – 18,000 hours were donated last year! To manage, encourage and thank these volunteers, it costs $59,150 each year, or $4,929/month.

Thank you so much to the community for all your incredible work in donating food to us this Fall – we have enough to feed families through the winter thanks to your generosity.

Will you now help us fund the distribution of this food to families in need?

Consider making a donation to ensure that the food you’ve donated gets to those who need it.

You can give online, or you can send us a cheque to 36 – 2550 Goldenridge Road, Mississauga ON L4X 2S3.

You may not know the names of the hungry families in Mississauga, but they’ll carry thanks in their hearts for your kindness and generosity.

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