Executive Message

Donating to the Food Bank is like sharing a meal with 26,500 of your neighbours.

If you knew your neighbour was having a difficult time you might invite them over for dinner. You might send them home with leftovers. What if you didn't know they needed help? What if they were too proud to ask? What if you hadn't met them?

Last year with the support of our community, The Food Bank of Waterloo Region shared a meal with these neighbours. More than 2.9 million pounds of safe, nutritious food helped approximately 26,500 different people put meals on their tables. Families, children, seniors and other individuals in our community face challenging circumstances in their daily lives that make it impossible to make ends meet. Job loss, illness, unexpected bills, rising food and fuel costs all contribute to the need for emergency food. What a difference it makes for these neighbours to have community programs able to assist in their time of need -70 programs that last year provided over 404,145 hot meals and 65,742 food hampers.

It is the collective effort of those in our community that ensure that we have the resources necessary to provide our agencies with the supplies they need. In a perfect world, the food bank would have ceased operation by now because everyone would have a stable and adequate income, affordable housing and be in good health. The reality is that hunger is a complex problem. There are numerous circumstances that make it difficult to eliminate hunger - but we can work together to alleviate it, help people deal with short term situations and improve their lives until long term solutions are found.

Thank you for visiting our website and considering how you can share with our community. Whether you are able to make a financial donation, would like to volunteer your time and/or services, or coordinate a food drive - your efforts are deeply appreciated and go a long way toward helping us reach all of the individuals and families in need of emergency food assistance.

Thank you for sharing with our community. Every day.

Wendi Campbell
Executive Director

Feel free to contact myself or other members of our team regarding questions you have about The Food Bank of Waterloo Region.