'Miracle' food drive collects over 1 million pounds of food in Windsor-Essex

Over 1million pounds of food were collected from Windsor-Essex residents last month as part of a food drive known as the June 27th Miracle.

More than 5,000 volunteers came together to collect donations in support of their neighbours, the food drive's organizing team said in a media release on Monday.

An estimated 1,032,199 lbs. of food, or468,198kilograms' worth, was collected. Over half of the food has already been distributed to organizations in Windsor-Essex.

The donations comeat a time when groups tackling hungerface increased demand and lower donation levels.

The UHC- Hub of Opportunitiesfood bank served 73per cent more households from April 2020to the end of March 2021 compared with the previous year.

"I want to make sure everyone knows what they did on June 27th is going to help our community in Windsor and Essex County, '' June Muir,presidentof the Windsor Essex Food Bank Association and CEO of UHC - Hub of Opportunities,said in thepress release.

"Donations were down a lot this year. A big thank you to the organizing committee for another successful year. It is no small task to organize this day."

Based on stats from theWindsor Essex Food Bank Association, the organizers of the drive believe the itemscollected could provide the equivalent of ayear of food bank use for 15,000 households or 34,000 people.

The event, which was smaller and had fewer volunteers compared with the inaugural event last year,was organized in just over three weeks.

One of the organizers, Matt Hernandez, said that seeing the community come together to pull off the event showed him "what we're capable of when we trust each other."

"So many people gave in one way or another time, expertise, leadership, equipment, facilities, signs, food, the list goes on. We are all in awe of everyone that played a part in making this miracle."