Members of Catholic Women’s League (CWL) councils across the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie were out in full force Saturday collecting food and monetary donations to assist food banks in their community.
Across the diocese anywhere from 100 to 200 members were actively involved in Saturday’s Hunger Knows No Season Food Drive
“We chose this time of year because we knew after Christmas there would be a decrease (in giving) and we wondered how we could give back to our communities and try to help in some way,” explained Lisa Henry, President of the Sault Ste. Marie Diocesan Council of the CWL.
Councils from as far east as Callander, and west to Sault Ste. Marie were busy collecting donations at a local grocery store in their community.
In North Bay, it was a busy day at Jeff and Tanis’ No Frills on Lakeshore Drive.
Sandra, a donor, felt it important to respond to the need.
“I am thankful that I have the means to donate and I just wanted to help.”
Everything that was generously collected at No Frills will be shared among three local organizations.
“The donations will go towards the Catholic Charities Foodbank at the Pro-Cathedral, the North Bay Foodbank and Nipissing University students,” Henry explained.
“We reached out to these organizations and asked them what they were most in need of and they were able to give us a good list of non-perishable items.”
Often times student food banks get overlooked.
“I don’t think we really fully appreciate the pressures that students are experiencing at this time because of the cost of school and the rising costs of accommodations, so the pressures are greater than ever it feels like,” Henry stated.
In Callander, CWL members were stationed at Foodland.
Within just the first few hours of collecting items, shoppers there donated close to 200 pounds of food as well as monetary donations, all earmarked for the Callander Food Bank.
Debbie Jones, President of St. Alphonsus CWL in Callander sees food insecurity on the rise in her community.
“I also volunteer at the Callander and District Food Bank, so I see the need every week, every month as more and more people come to us in need of groceries,” said Jones.
The food bank in that community currently serves 135 clients.
“We see families, we have seniors, we have people who just happen to be out of work and can’t make ends meet.”
This is just the second time the CWL has held a food drive such as this one.
“We’ve only done this once before in 2018. At that time, we realized that food insecurity is touching more and more areas,” said Henry.
Based on the previous response, it was decided that now would be a good time to hold another food drive, but on a larger scale.
“At that time in the three major centres we raised about a ton of food, and so we hope to surpass that this year especially since food insecurity is so prevalent.”
The Catholic Women’s League is a national organization.
“There are 63-thousand members across Canada. In our own Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie, we have over 18 hundred members and 29 councils. We operate under the pillars of faith, service, and social justice,” Henry explained.
“Our main mandate is to give back to our communities and to do service and charity all under the umbrella of faith.”
