Local youth groups join forces for food bank

Hundreds of youth will spread out across Steinbach, Blumenort and Mitchell from Oct. 6-10, in a bid to boost the pantry at South East Helping Hands, the food bank located in Steinbach.

In a longstanding tradition, churches join forces in the area for this initiative. This year 14 youth groups are taking part.

Grace Mennonite Church co-pastor Kyle Penner has worked with Emmanual Evangelical Free Church student ministries pastor Jori Dueck in organizing the event.

Penner said it’s his sixteenth year of being involved and said the annual event predates his involvement.

Prior to the door-to-door campaign youth groups will deliver flyers which indicate the date youth will be collecting.

Penner said they hope to get non-perishable items that the food bank can use.

“We’re pretty open with what we receive, however if you wouldn’t eat it yourself, because either it’s disgusting or expired, please don’t donate that,” he said. “We want to give food that we would eat ourselves.”

Food Banks Canada, in an Aug. 25 Facebook post indicated the top 10 desirable products for food banks in Manitoba.

They include canned fruit, canned soup and stew, canned tuna, canned vegetables, pasta, pasta sauce, rice, peanut butter, baby formula and baby food, and instant oatmeal.

Last year volunteers rounded up 21,000 pounds of donated items.

Penner said it’s a great activity for youth and for the wider community.

“We think that our faith leads us to feed people,” he said. “We think that teaching young people that when we have extra our first posture is to extend the table or build a bigger table.”

It’s also an example of cooperation for the greater good.

“There’s something cool about 14 churches from across the theological spectrum and size spectrum,” he said. “We can all come together and do this.”

Penner said if a house gets missed, people should call the church responsible, a number that will be on their flyer, and not the food bank.

Organizers will come to pick up anything that is inadvertently missed.