Belmont secondary students will take to the streets Wednesday to collect food for the Goldstream Food Bank.
On April 24 from 5 to 9 p.m., students and volunteers will head out into West Shore neighbourhoods to go door-to-door and collect non-perishable food items as part of its Spring Out Of Hunger food drive.
It is Belmont Secondary School’s second food drive of the year, with one in the winter called 10,000 Tonight.
READ MORE: Help West Shore residents spring out of hunger
“We realized that there’s also a need for food during the spring so we’ve been putting this on for a couple of years now,” said one of the organizers, Keagan Tait.
Tait and his friend Jon Bell — who are both Grade 11 students at Belmont — have taken on Spring Out Of Hunger and are hoping for this year’s food drive to surpass donations collected in previous years.
They’ve planned out routes for volunteer drivers, students and family members to collect food from homes in Langford, Colwood and part of Metchosin.
Tait said he and Bell have been busy planning the event and the logistics of it but he said it is coming together well.
They will be going out in the community in the next few days to post flyers and notify community members about the food drive so they can be prepared.
READ MORE: Spring Out of Hunger food drive gears up in Langford
“Just having a few non-perishables ready to go when people come on the night of the event is great,” Tait said. “If people want to actually bring stuff to the school too, that would be super appreciated as well.”
Students that are part of the graduating class at Belmont will be helping out as well, since many of them are beginning to drive on their own.
“This year, hopefully it’ll be a much larger turnout so we can cover a larger area and get more food,” Tait said.
There is no specific goal for the number of food donations they are hoping to receive, but Tait said anything similar to 10,000 Tonight — where the goal is 10,000 food items — would be great.
Tait said the evening should be filled with fun and will be a great opportunity to help out community members.
shalu.mehta@goldstreamgazette.com