The winter season and the current pandemic saw an exponential increase in the demand for non-perishable food items across many food banks in Canada. 

The devastating impact on people’s lives and health due to COVID-19 has made 2020 a difficult year. The pandemic has also negatively impacted the economy and the financial strength of people across Canada.  For some, the loss of income has caused a shortage of access to nutritious food and has led to food insecurity.

In order to provide much needed assistance to struggling families and individuals, the volunteers of BAPS Charities organized local food drives in 14 cities across Canada. Together, the volunteers collected more than 20,000 pounds of non-perishable food items which were donated to food banks across the country.
The food banks supported by BAPS Charities include: Alberta
• Centre for Newcomers, Calgary• Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association (CIWA), Calgary• Edmonton’s Food Bank, Edmonton British Columbia
• Surrey Food Bank, Vancouver Manitoba
• Helping Hands Centre of Brandon, Brandon Ontario
• Knights Table Food Bank, Brampton • Cambridge Self-Help Food Bank, Cambridge• Stittsville Food Bank, Ottawa• Scarborough Centre for Healthy Communities, Scarborough• Feed the Need in Durham, Whitby• Daily Bread Food Bank, Toronto• Windsor Goodfellows Club Food Bank, Windsor Quebec
• Moisson Montreal Food Bank, Montreal Saskatchewan
• Regina Food Bank, Regina• Saskatoon Food Bank, Saskatoon 

The mayors of several cities expressed their gratitude to BAPS Charities including His Worship John Tory, Mayor, City of Toronto who tweeted, “Thank you BAPS Charities for your generous donation of over 3,500 lbs of food to Daily Bread – this will provide vital support to vulnerable communities in Toronto.”
His Worship Patrick Brown, Mayor, City of Brampton tweeted, “A big thank you to my friends at BAPS Charities for donating over 5,000 pounds of non-perishable food to the Knights Table. I am so impressed by their wonderful display of generosity. We are all in this together and need to support each other during these difficult days.” His Worship Drew Dilkens, Mayor, City of Windsor tweeted “Amazing work by the BAPS Charities, whose members collected and donated more than 1,700 pounds of non-perishable food items to Windsor Goodfellows Club on Christmas Eve. The generosity of our community never ceases to amaze me.” “BAPS Charities is proud to support food banks across Canada to reduce food insecurity during this difficult time”, said Yogesh Patel, President of BAPS Charities Canada. “We are thankful to all of our local volunteers and donors who came together to help those who were most in need.”

Inspired by His Holiness Mahant Swami Maharaj, BAPS Charities volunteers all across Canada and around the world are finding ways to help their communities. From the distribution of food, to the donation of thousands of masks to front-line workers, to providing monetary assistance to hospitals, BAPS Charities aims to support local communities in need.

For more information, please visit: bapscharities.org/canada/news/