Thank you for setting an extra place at your table during the 2009 holiday season!

Due to your generosity, The Food Bank of Waterloo Region raised 239, 500 lbs of food during our Holiday Food Drive.

Thank you to everyone who showed their support through food and monetary donations, by coordinating food drives and by volunteering your time.

Stuff-a-Bus 2009

The annual Stuff-a-Bus food drive and fundraiser took place at Zehr's (Laurentian) over the weekend of December 11, 2009 and was coordinated and sponsored by KOOL FM, Grand River Transit and CTV. The public was invited to fill the bus with non-perishable food items and managed to raise 67, 972 lbs of food and $66,931! Many thanks to everyone who contributed to this event including the U14A Kitchener Boys Soccer Team "Pumas". This is the third year the Pumas helped un-stuff the bus.

On May 21, 2009 over 450 people came to the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery to select a beautiful one-of-a-kind pottery bowl while enjoying delicious soups and breads provided by local chefs. This annual fundraiser helps ensure The Food Bank of Waterloo Region is able to meet the growing need for emergency food in our community. The 2009 Empty Bowls event raised $18,782.00 bringing the grand total raised by the event to well over $ 128,000  over the past 11 years.

Pictured:  Wendi Campbell, Food Bank Waterloo Region, Robert J. Williams, Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery President, Robert Achtemichuk, Executive Director of the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, Rosemarie Startek, Waterloo Potters’ Workshop and Mary King also with the Waterloo Potters’ Workshop.

Kitchener-Waterloo Academy of Medicine's

Livin' La Vida Local Fundraiser Gala raised a total of $14, 350 for The Food Bank of Waterloo Region this April.  The event was held at the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery on April 24th, 2009 as a gathering of medical professionals in our community.  Local restaurants and caterers offered their talents to the fundraiser, which included an incredible and fully edible Food Bank display (pictured left) by Sweet Sweets Cake Art!

2008 Insurance Industry Food Drive

The Spirit of Giving at The Food Bank

At The Food Bank, we have been so fortunate in being able to witness, first hand, the generosity of our community during the Holiday Season. This year has been no exception as more and more of you demonstrate through food drives, special events, or simply out of your own pockets what you can do for those less fortunate at this time of year. 

In just one example of this generosity, Rick Campbell (pictured above) turned his annual Christmas Bonus into a donation to The Food Bank! Rick donated $1000 worth of

non-perishable food to us this December, giving those in need a very large Christmas Bonus this year!  Thank you, Rick, and to all of those who have shown us the spirit of giving!

The Kitchener Rangers visit The Food Bank to help wrap up our Fall Food Drive

Kitchener Collegiate Institute supports our Fall Food Drive

Through the participation of their Physics Club (pictured left and right) and the events organized at their high school, KCI raised a total of 1183 lbs of food! To help make their food drive successful, Instructor Alan Jewitt-Dyck awarded his Physics Club members 10 points for each item donated that was listed on our Most Needed Food Items page and 1 point for every item not on the list. A total of 10,000 points was awarded to the two classes.

Nutri-lawn and Raytheon show their support for Thanksgiving Food Drive!

                                                                                      The staff at Nutri-Lawn (pictured left) collected 1189 lbs of food which

was matched by $1189 by their company!

Raytheon (right) raised an amazing 2354 lbs of food and $413.81 in financial donations!

Congratulations go out to both organizations for running such successful food drives and for thinking of our neighbours in need. 

           Your generosity is greatly appreciated.

9th Annual Kitchener Council's Grillefest kicks off Oktoberfest and supports The Food Bank!

This year's Grillefest was the most successful yet! Thousands turned out on a bright and sunny October day to kick-off the Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest celebrations and enjoy lunch (authentic Oktoberfest sausage) provided by M&M Meat Shops and served by Kitchener City Council members and staff.  All proceeds went to The Food Bank of Waterloo Region. 

The Food Bank staff and volunteers (pictured above) were there to help collect donations and together we raised at total of $6,089.60 in donations and 620 lbs of food!  We would like to thank all of those involved in making this year's Grillefest such a success.

Kool's in the Haus winner supports The Food Bank!

Kool FM's Kool in Haus contest winner, Tom Ludwig, chose to turn his Oktoberfest celebration into an opportunity to collect food for The Food Bank of Waterloo Region!  Tom and his neighbours started celebrating Oktoberfest-style with Angie, Mark, and Brian during their morning broadcast from 5:30 - 9AM.  While targeting The Food Bank's top 5 most needed food items, his neighbourhood raised a total of 180 lbs of food during their festivities!  Congratulations Tom, and thank you for thinking of those in need this Fall!

It's not too late to donate to our Fall Food Drive. 

Please visit our Food Drive page to find out how to get involved.

Fall Food Drive Kicks Off!

Our Fall Food Drive Kick-Off this year showed an encouraging amount of support from members of our community. With the help of Dave Jutzi (91.5 The Beat), the Golden Triangle Sikh Association, the Kitchener-Waterloo Youth Orchestra, Safe Haven Shelter, Gary Attack, Nutri-lawn and many others we announced our goal of raising 350, 000 lbs of food!  This amount is equivalent to approximately 25, 000 filled Food Drive bags.

Please help us reach our goal this year by organizing a Food Drive between now and October 14th.  See our Food Drive page for more information on how you can get started. We need your support!

Download our Media Release (.doc)

September 2-26

The Kraft Hunger Challenge makes it possible for you to give twice as much as you thought you could to help fight hunger!

The Food Bank of Waterloo Region, Kraft Canada and the CAFB invite you to make a donation this September. When you mark 'Kraft Hunger Challenge' in the comment box on our online form, or in the memo line of your personal cheque when donating between now and September 26th, Kraft Canada will match your donation - doubling your gift! 

We're Renovating! 

Courtesy of The Holmes Foundation and Conestoga College, our food sorting area will undergo a much needed renovation this Fall!  The Food Bank was chosen out of a number of worthy candidates.

Our staff and volunteers are looking forward to these improvements that will help us to better serve the needs in our community.

Stay tuned for updates on our progress!

The Food Bank's Youth Committee

Garage Sale

Saturday, September 13

8AM - 2PM

Support our Youth Committee by donating or purchasing items at our garage sale this Saturday!  All proceeds will go to The Food Bank of Waterloo Region. Please join us!

Download a Garage Sale flyer for more information here (pdf).

Apply to be a volunteer at our garage sale, either individually or as a group.

The Food Bank was proud to be involved in Music and Movies In The Park this summer with The Beat Goes On, Princess Twin Cinemas, The City of Waterloo and Kool FM.  Everyone enjoyed live music and watched great movies on Canada's largest outdoor screen from July to August, Thursday evenings at Waterloo Park.   All events were free with a donation to The Food Bank!

This year, Music and Movies raised a total of $477.04 in financial donations and 3,356 lbs in donations of food!

Thank you to The Beat Goes On, Princess Twin Cinemas, The City of Waterloo and Kool FM and also everyone who came to enjoy Music and Movies In The Park! See you next summer!

Canstruction wins at Volunteer Impact Awards!

Pictured L-R: Guy Exley, Peter McGuire, Michele Baumgarten, Angela Moisse, Wendi Campbell, Gwenanne Jorgenson, Tim Jackson, Russell Wong.  Photo courtesy of Depiction Photography.

Canstruction Waterloo Region received the Innovative Volunteer Involvement Award at the recent Volunteer Impact Awards hosted by the Volunteer Action Centre.  This award is presented to a voluntary or public sector organization whose innovative and creative volunteer involvement programs successfully engage local volunteers.  Thank You, again, to all who helped make Canstruction such a success!

HSBC Supports The Food Bank!

Pictured above: On June 25th, their first day of volunteering, HSBC managers presented Food Bank Volunteer Coordinator Rose Tanyi (centre) with a cheque for $1000 to help The Food Bank distribute food where it is most needed in our community.

Each week until Christmas this year, four HSBC employees will be volunteering at The Food Bank!  They will be helping the warehouse run smoothly and providing valuable customer service to our agencies and donors. Volunteers are the heart of The Food Bank!

National Hunger Awareness and Lunch Money Day

June 5th, 2008

On June 5th, National Hunger Awareness Day, several union organizations treated someone in need to lunch by donating their lunch money to The Food Bank of Waterloo Region.   For every $1 donated we are able to distribute over $8 worth of emergency food to our neighbours in need. Thank you to all who participated in Lunch Money Day this year!

Also as part of National Hunger Awareness Day, five classes of grades 7 and 8 students from Laurelwood Public School visited The Food Bank from June 5 - 6 to focus their attention on hunger in our community. The students brought in the results of their food drive, sorted food and participated in a situational game called "Hunger" to help them realize the everyday occurrences that can add up to needing assistance.  Thank you to all the students and teachers from Laurelwood who participated in raising awareness!

2008 Golf Tournament

at Rebel Creek Golf Course

was proud to be this year's Title Sponsor

Thank you to all of our golfers, sponsors, committee members, volunteers and everyone involved in this year's fantastic (and chilly!) Golf Tournament at Rebel Creek on May 27th.  This was our 12th Annual Tournament and our most successful yet.  With your help, we raised over $40, 000 for The Food Bank of Waterloo Region! Wow!

Congratulations to the Second Foundation team who were the winning foursome of the Tournament!

Casey's Feed the Soul

April 28th to May 25th

Through April and May 2008, when customers ordered an item from Casey's Feed the Soul menu, $1.00 was donated to the Ontario Association of Food Banks and The Food Bank of Waterloo Region.  Thank you for your support!

See the OAFB Feed the Soul page or Casey's for more information ...

Empty Bowls 2008

May 15 at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery

The 11th Annual Empty Bowls event at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery was a huge success! This year we raised an amazing $18, 745 for The Food Bank of Waterloo Region.

Our hope is that each time the empty bowl is taken from your cupboard at home, it will serve as a reminder that someone else's bowl was empty and that on this occasion, you helped alleviate hunger in our community. 

Thank you to the potters who donated their time and talents to make this unique event so successful. Thank you to the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery for hosting this event once again.  It is the perfect venue!  And, thank you to all the restaurants and vendors who donated their materials and expertise to ensure a wonderful experience for everyone.

It Starts With One Can!

The Food Bank of Waterloo Region is looking for teams to participate in Canstruction®, a food-raising competition that takes place for the first time in Waterloo Region from March 28 through April 4, 2008 at Conestoga Mall as part of the Spring Food Drive.

Canstruction® is an international building competition developed to bring together, in the spirit of friendly competition, engineers, architects, designers, construction professionals and students to design and build structures using canned and packaged food. More...  

The deadline has been extended!

To enter a team, become a sponsor or for other ways to help, contact The Food Bank by phone 519-743-5576 ext. 249 or by email.

It's not too late to donate to the Spring Food Drive!

We need to raise 205,500 lbs

to meet the need over the next 6 months.

Please help reach this goal by registering your food drive or making a donation of non-perishable food or cash.

More about the food drive...

Thank you Canstruction Waterloo Region teams and supporters!  Together you raised 31,803 lbs of food for The Food Bank!

Thank you to KOOL FM/Oldies 1090, CTV and GRT.  The annual Stuff A Bus campaign raised 48,846 lbs of food and $26,937 for the Food Bank of Waterloo Region and the Cambridge Self-Help Food Bank. Thanks to the Kitchener U12 Pumas Rep Soccer Team for unstuffing the Kitchener bus! More...

Please Set an Extra Place at Your Holiday Table

There are many ways to "set an extra place" to remember a family or child in need of food assistance. 

Food donations can be made at any local grocery store, food drive, or at The Food Bank.  Cash donations may be made online or by calling or visiting The Food Bank.

Vol. 3 of the KW Bilingual School vocal students CD will be available at The Food Bank, Long & McQuade, Waterloo Community Arts Centre, 25 Regina St.   Visit www.theswamp.biz for other locations and information.

Recording artist Mati Haskell is offering a Music Down Load Card   campaign for the Food Bank. Read more at www.matihaskell.com

Thanksgiving Food Drive Underway!

Sept 26 to Oct. 10

We need 350,000 lbs of food.

Please set an extra place at your table by organizing a food drive, making a donation of food or cash or participating in one of the many events happening in our region to support The Food Bank.  Donations can be made at any local grocery store, firehall, food drive or at The Food Bank.

See our calendar of events for some special things happening in our community...

Local business Crown Courier helped kick off the annual Thanksgiving Food Drive.  Crown has donated their services to help the Thanksgiving Food Drive for over 8 years.   More...

The Roofman Inc., K-W Community Foundation, the Trillium Foundation and many community donors set an extra place by making the campaign for a new roof a success.  More

Sun Life hosted 96.7 CHYM FM's George & Tara show as part of the CHYM Cares Feed Hope Campaign.  Sun Life raised 6,779 lbs of food this fall.  The Home Harware family of stores are accepting cash and food donations to support this campaign.

See our calendar of events for some special things happening in our community.

Empty Bowls 2007 raised $16, 791 for the Food Bank of Waterloo Region. 

L-R:  Rosemarie Startek, Katharine Schmidt, Beth Cotter and Robert Archtemichuk.

More...