'Holy moly!' Last day donations boost Business Cares' annual food bank drive by 34 per cent

The Business Cares Food Drive has collected a total of435,400 pounds of food for the London Food Bank this yeara whopping 34 per cent increase over last year's 325,000 pounds.

They'd only hoped to raise 325,001 pounds, said campaign chair Wayne Dunn.

For comparison's sake, the campaignusually seesan annualincrease of about four tofive per cent.

Dunn saidthe Business Caresdonationusually supplies the London Food Bankuntil March.

This year's increase means they should stay stockeduntil at least April, and cash donations will allow the food bank to buy more fresh produce and meat.

"[The Food Bank] is going to be a better place over the next few months because of it," said Dunn.

The campaign wrapped up Friday morningwith a ceremony at the Business Careswarehouse on Hubrey Road.

A small fleet of 5-tonne trucks were on-site to weigh the donations and transport them to the London Food Bank.

At last count, Business Cares had only reached 70 per cent of itsgoal.

But there wereseveral large corporate donations Friday morning.

Golfers Care raised more than$76,000, eliciting a "Holy moly!" from Dunn.

The London Home Builders Association (LHBA) collected the equivalent of130,000 lbs of food in food and monetary donations.

According to Business Cares' formula, that works out to a donation of approximately $227,500.