Whistler Food Bank kicks off annual Foodworx event

The Whistler Community Services Society (WCSS) Food Bank is kicking off their 9th annual summer food drive on August 11th.

The annual event titled ‘Foodworx’ is a spin-off of the mountain bike festival ‘Crankworx’ that descends on Whistler each summer. Food bank staff work with the bike festival to create the event that sees local businesses compete against one another to raise the most amount of food and cash donations for the food bank during the festival.

This year Foodworx will run from August 11th to 29th, nine days longer than Crankworx. WCSS Food Bank and Community Kitchens Coordinator Gizem Kaya says they run the donation drive longer as “its a very busy time for Whistler businesses”.

The goal is to have staff collect the most amount of food and funds for the food bank during the period. So far 25 businesses are signed up. “…we’re a competitive town, literally everybody stepped up to the plate” says Kaya. The Food Bank Coordinator says there is no holiday on which to hold a food drive over the summer “…we don’t really have a giving holiday like Christmas, Thanksgiving, when we tend to give. That’s why we started organizing this during the summer months, to gain momentum from the spirit of Crankworx.

Last year 9 businesses where involved and approximately $4,000 and 1,000lbs of food was raised. With triple the amount of participants this year Kaya is hoping to triple the amount raised.

Businesses that would like to sign up can request more details by e-mailing foodbank@mywcss.org to get involved. Members of the public can also drop off donations at some of the participating businesses.

You can hear Gizem Kaya’s interview on Mountain Mornings here.