In response to rising food and living costs and the increased use of food banks during the holiday season, last week we asked you, our loyal readers, to help us support the Helping Hand Food Bank with an online food drive.
The holidays can be a particularly stressful time for all of us, but especially for those in need. The added strain on our local food bank means it needs extra support from caring community members to ensure that no one in our city goes without.
With this in mind, BradfordToday embarked on a campaign to raise much-needed funds for our local food bank.
The BradfordToday Cares: Food Drive campaign was simple. We secured food packages donated by Zehrs Bradford and asked our readers to purchase the food packages at $25 apiece through our online pop-up store, with the food packages to be donated to the local food bank.
BradfordToday would then match the $25 purchase price to double the donation.
But that’s not all.
We were able to leverage the power of our community to make the donations even bigger by asking our local business partners to match our donation.
Addictive Design, Botas Electrical, Bradford Wolves Soccer Club and the Wolves Athletic Centre all answered the call.
With their support and yours, for each food package purchased in our pop-up store, every dollar was matched five times with all proceeds going directly to Helping Hand Food Bank.
In Bradford, the generosity of our readers and advertisers was translated into a donation of $2,900 for the food bank, plus the food itself.
The Helping Hand Food Bank provides free groceries to 400 families twice a month. Each bag of food costs approximately $50-$100 per bag, depending on the size of the family. That means our collective donation will help to feed 30 families this holiday season.
Thank you for helping us to strengthen our community and make the holiday season a bit brighter here in Bradford.
