Man in a onesie sleeps over at a grocery store, raises $11,000 for food bank

Bobby Ferris put on a light-blue onesie, pitched a tent inside a local Whitehorse grocery store, and slept over for three days last month.

"The first night, actually, [was] especially weird. I didn't have any ear plugs," he said.

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But people reached out and gave him some help along the way from a blow-up mattress to the wifi password for Wykes' Your Independent Grocer.

"I'm not gonna lie to you There were some Netflix viewed," he said.

Ferris said that he received an "overwhelmingly positive" response from the community. "They were just like, 'You're doing a great thing here.This is insane.'"

"The people that really didn't, you know, catch on to what I was doing was like 'Why are you wearing a onesie?'"

Ferris is a radio host with a local radio station, CKRW 96.1 The Rush. The fundraiser was a part of the station's "Stuffy the Food Bank" campaign which sold exactly 961 stuffed animals.

"I was going tostay until they were gone," said Ferris, who stayed in the store from a Tuesday to Thursday.

"Instead of just dropping off the odd non-perishable item, if we were gonna collect cashthen they could really use it where they needed it, instead of like, 'oh great, more tuna.'"

Last week, he handed over a cheque for$11,035 to the local Whitehorse food bank on behalf of his team at CKRW.

"The people in Whitehorse should be commended because they really got behind it," said Ferris.

'Food-rent cycle' a challenge, says food bank president

"We're very fortunate to live in a generous community," said Stu Mackay, president of the Whitehorse Food Bank's board.

The food bank's supplies are "looking good" for Christmas, he said. "But I always like to remind people, hunger is not seasonal."

"Christmas comes and those shelves are full, and the food bank looks better," said David Whiteside, a volunteer at the food bank. "About July, there's really nothing there, so people come and get their beans and they go home."

The local food bank served 1,430people at the end of November, which included 716 households, according to Mackay. There has been a steady increase in food bank use within the past year, said Mackay.

Mackay said that the biggest challenge he's seeing is the same one across Canada: the "food-rent cycle" that is "very dangerous" for families, especially in a city like Whitehorse where the housing market is hot, said Mackay.

"The inability to keep housing prices affordable and to try to control food prices, puts a lot of people in jeopardy in what I call the food-rent cycle," said Mackay.

What people don't realize is that "their friends go to the food bank," said Whiteside.

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"I have been shocked and sometimes embarrassed because people that I know from the community, end up there in front of me, and they're a bit taken aback. I'm very private about it, I don't tell anybody who Isee there.

"It's a hidden problem," said Whiteside.

The food bank is continuing to receive donations. For more information on how to contribute, visit theirwebsite.

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