A Letter From the Chairs - Business Cares Food Drive 2011

On behalf of the Business Cares Food Drive committee, we would like to extend our sincere gratitude and thanks to the entire London community for helping raise an incredible 256,000 pounds of food for the London Food Bank. This is 12% higher than last year and given the economic conditions we have faced in our community the past 3 years makes this even more impressive and shows the true generosity of Londoner's. 

Food Bank usage continues to increase, in fact we have seen an additional 5% increase with visits year over year with record usage in the months of this past November and December and to add to that, 40% of the people who we help are under the age of 17.  This food will satisfy the needs of the Food Bank for the next 3 months and the generous donations of cash and cheques will go towards milk, eggs, fresh produce and baby needs...all of which most of us are able to enjoy daily. 

Although our drive is only 3 weeks it has always come down to the final few days and this year was no exception.  We had an amazing start with several successful events over the first 2 weeks however it was the final push is what we needed.  The London media responded with full force and we are thankful for what they did over the final 5 days because quite simply without them we would not meet our goal. The response of Christmas week was overwhelming and quite humbling, we heard from employees and employers many sharing stories of competitions amongst them, we heard from small and big business, local unions, institutions and organizations, students and seniors all coming in with food and cheques. 

For every great story we can tell of a $1000 donation we can give you one for a $20 contribution.  Every contribution had helping others in mind and again confirmed our slogan of "Taking care of business means taking care of people".   So thank you all...and you know who you are when we needed it the most, from your contributions of food and money to those who gave of their precious time.  We also offer appreciation from the thousands of people who are the recipients of your kindness.  You have made a difference in the lives of the less fortunate.  Thank you for caring!

Wayne Dunn and Ed Holder

Co-chairs of the Business Cares Food Drive