A Williams Lake resident is giving a helping hand in times of crisis.
Small business owner Hattie Deyo has organized what’s being called ‘A One Food Drive to Rule Them All’ that will take place Saturday.
“When things started kind of sliding into chaos here in town and people were talking about the food shortage in the grocery store, my first thought was for the families who can’t afford to go stock up, the families who are totaling relying on the food bank,” she says. “And then my next thought was depending on how things go with the economy there’s going to be a lot more families relying on the food bank.”
Following those thoughts, Deyo says she gave Tamara Robinson with the Salvation Army a call about the idea of organizing something to help and found out there are 500 families who rely on the food bank.
“It goes a lot farther than just Williams Lake. It’s quite a large area and they are definitely in crisis right now, and so it just seemed it was all meant to be.”
Because many people are heeding the advice of health officials and are staying home, Deyo says they will be offering porch pick-up for tomorrow’s food drive that will take place between 10 am to 1 pm.
Anyone wanting to help can text Deyo with their address at 250-392-0660.
“So far we’ve had a lot of people who want to donate their time to drive but we have not had a lot of people wanting to donate food which is part of the reason that the food bank is so concerned at this point,” Deyo says. “As the panic and fear spreads and people are getting more worried, they are hoarding and looking out for themselves. I think at a time like this we really need to be looking out for each other and our neighbors so I’m just hoping that people will be encouraged to share what they have because I know that all of us probably have one or two things that we can donate at this point, so I’m hoping that that will happen.”
Deyo says she herself will be donating everything that she does not immediately need to the food drive that will go towards supporting the Williams Lake Salvation Army’s food bank.
“I actually did have a call from someone today who was even willing to donate toilet paper and I was like awesome!” she says. “There are still good people out there.”
Robinson wrote on Facebook earlier this week that the Salvation Army food bank is dangerously low and that their services are high demand.
“At the end of the food drive, we’re going to be meeting up with the staff at the food bank there and filling the shelves with everything that we have,” Deyo says. “‘ll be keeping in touch with them as well to see if we can help out in the future but hopefully this will help put a dent into the problem there.”