BC Dairy is donating $50,000 to Food Banks BC in partnership with 31 local restaurants serving meals featuring local dairy products. The donation will be distributed to food banks across the province.
With its Eat good, do good campaign, between May 9 and June 19 BC Dairy partnered with restaurants in Metro Vancouver, Victoria, and Kelowna offering menu items featuring locally made dairy products and pledged a donation to Food Banks BC for each order. By the end of the campaign, 49,735 qualifying meals had been ordered.
The campaign was intended to support families struggling with food security at this time while helping drive business to restaurants recovering from the pandemic.
“For Food Banks BC the impact [of this campaign] is significant and two-fold,” says Dan Huang-Taylor, executive director of Food Banks BC. “Firstly, the funds are hugely significant and come at such a critical time as more and more people turn to food banks with so many struggling to keep up with the increases we’re seeing in living costs. Secondly, the awareness that this campaign raises about the work of food banks and the importance of partnerships such as this with BC Dairy is of such great importance.”
“Between Dec 2021 to March 2022, we saw the number of new clients registering at food banks jump by 83 per cent,” says Huang-Taylor. “One third of all food bank clients in BC is a child, and the number of seniors turning to food banks has increased by 20 per cent in the last two years.”
