Demand at the Central Okanagan Food Bank is getting harder to meet.

Director of Development Trina Speiser said the need has been rising ever since the COVID-19 pandemic.

鈥淲e are anticipating having to serve over 8,500 individuals, and that represents about 4,000 households. So, that鈥檚 up about 32 per cent over Christmas from last year.鈥�

Speiser said a big part of being able to support that many mouths to feed is the partnership the food bank has with local grocers. Drivers from the food bank go daily to about 18 local grocery stores to pick up whatever they can鈥檛 sell as part of a Food Recovery Program.

Peter鈥檚 Independent Grocer in 琉璃神社 is one of the food bank鈥檚 partners. The company continues to host its annual Holiday Food Drive with all monetary and food donations going directly to the food bank.

鈥淲hen the wildfires hit we actually built 600 emergency hampers that depleted our stock, and it was a leverage partnership with the grocery retailers in town, like Peter鈥檚 Independent, where we could phone them up and they were essential in getting us goods overnight and delivered so we could continue to build emergency hampers.鈥�

Key items the food bank is looking for are peanut butter, cereal, and baby products like formula.

Peter鈥檚 Holiday Food Drive is on from Nov. 30 to Dec. 24. All donations can be made in-store.

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