COVID forces changes to Canmore's annual food drive

ROB MURRAY: I’m speaking with Brad Hawker from Royal LePage Rocky Mountain Realty. The annual food drive is coming up. What anniversary are you celebrating this year?

BRAD HAWKER: Shockingly, this is our 29^th annual Royal LePage Food Drive.

RM: Quite a tradition here! For 28 years we’ve been fanning across the community, a massive volunteer old-school effort to go door to door to collect food. With COVID-19 though, some changes needed to be made here this year haven’t they?

BH: Yes, for the safety of everybody – our volunteers, which have been over 300 strong each year for the last few years, as well as the people that are gracious enough to be able to donate. We will still come to your door, but you do need to reach out to us and register and then we’ll collect it, or you can drop it off at our office, 710 – 10^th St., Monday to Friday between 9 and 5.

RM: How can people register if they’d like to get their food collected? And what’s the date that that’ll happen?

BH: December 3^rd.  People can register here. They can also donate financially.

RM: You collect food for the food bank and you collect cash donations for the Bow Valley Christmas Spirit Campaign, is that correct?

BH: Correct. Cash or cheque. You can drop those off at the office. We’ve had a stream of people coming into the office dropping off cheques and cash. The Christmas Spirit Campaign is able to give a tax receipt if it’s $20 or more.

RM: I think it’s important to stress how important this food drive is both to the food bank and to the Christmas Spirit Campaign, and why it needs to continue in some capacity this year. How much did you collect last year?

BH: Over 6,700 pounds of food, And over $3,600. Please reach out to any of the Royal LePage realtors. Sherry Protz and Taylor Mueller in our office have been our coordinators for the last couple of years, and we thank them very much for all their efforts. We can come by your house and pick up any food that you would like to donate. Please reach out.

RM: Are you collecting anything else for the Christmas Spirit Campaign at the Royal LePage office?

BH: We will take toys, but our primary focus is food and/or financial donations.