Hi Wonder Moms,

I know the women on this site a very helping and supportive. I would like to spearhead a cause which is dire straights right now. Our food banks are running out of food and supplies for families in need. Especially, with this recession going on, people who are getting laid off can't find jobs, and have to go to the food banks to get food to feed they're families. I know each of use can spare a can, or a box of macaroni & cheese to a family in need. Please contact me if you can help, I feel we as moms we can make a diiference in many lives if we work together. Please help in this cause!! I can pickup the food from you or you can drop it off @ my place.
I'm hoping to collect over 500 lbs, so that I can drop it off to our local Salvation Army in Milton
The Salvation Army is on board with this drive and very happy an appreciative of this food drive :thumbsup:!!
This story is what made me want to do this, thank you again,

Rose :-)
Story in the Toronto Sun-Sunday edition:
Single mom Tsering Chokey was waiting outside the back door of the food bank despite the fact it wouldn't be open for another hour and a half.
Beside Chokey, her one-year-old baby Palmo Tenzin slept in a stroller, buried under blankets and guarded from the bitter cold by a plastic covering.
Since she was laid off from her job as a nanny in November, Chokey, 34, has been forced to make a twice-monthly trip to the Parkdale Community Food Bank, a small and dilapidated storefront on King St. W. at Cowan Ave., to supplement the meagre amount of food she can afford to buy from the grocery store. If she's lucky, the food bank will also have diapers to give her.
The economic downturn impacting Canada and the world is already being felt by Toronto's most needy residents. Food bank use is up, so are applications for welfare and public housing. Social service agencies from the United Way to the Salvation Army have already begun to feel the strain from increased demand for their services.
It was 12:30 p.m. on Thursday this past week -- and Chokey had already staked her place at the front of a line that hadn't formed yet but that would soon comprise dozens of people. The food bank wouldn't be open until 2 p.m., but Chokey was ready to brave the plunging temperatures.
"Because later on if I come I have to be all the way back in the (line), on the street. The lines are very long. So I come early so that way I can get better food," said the Tibetan native, who has been in Canada three years.
The long lines that form behind the 1316 King St. W. food bank are common, acknowledged Robert Thorpe, executive director of the food bank, who also said the economic meltdown has spurred a noticeable increase in the amount of people who have signed up to use the food bank.

If you'd like to continue reading here is the link....
http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2009/02/08/8308306-sun.html
Here is a list that the coordinator from the food bank sent me that are items most needed:
Thanks again,

Rose

Most needed items as per food bank :
Peanut Butter
Baby Formula & Food
Canned Fruits or Vegetables
Canned Fish or Meat
Dried Pasta & Tomato Sauce
Rice
Lentils
Cans of Soup or Hearty Stew
Powdered, Canned or Tetra Pak Milk
Cans of Beans
Macaroni and Cheese