They’re a little less than halfway into their holiday food drive, but the Barrie Food Bank is still optimistic they will reach their goal this holiday season.
On Wednesday morning, Jamie Martin, the owner of The Market Buffet Barbecue and Smokehouse in south-end Barrie, made a large donation of more than 2,100 pounds of food.
Martin joins other generous local donors this week such as Barrie Ford and Barrie Chrysler, who made a donation of 5,452 pounds, and the Barrie Minor Hockey Association, who made a donation of 2,500 pounds.
“So far, we’ve raised about 45,000 pounds of food (total),” said Peter Sundborg, executive director of the Barrie Food Bank. “We’re still a long way away from our goal.”
As the goal by the end of December is to raise 200,000 pounds of food, Sundborg is hopeful much more will come in as the deadline approaches.
“Things are moving along and we’re kind of hoping that over the next few days and certainly into next week we’ll see a huge amount of food come in,” he said.
Sundborg clarifies that it is normal for more donations to come in as Christmas gets closer.
“Personally, I think we need a little bit of snow to get everybody into the holiday spirit,” said Sundborg. “The snow gets people realizing that Christmas is only 13 days away.”
For more information on the Barrie Food Bank or to make a financial donation, click here.