For 17 years, thousands of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in and around Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, have spent a week each fall collecting food for their local food banks.
This year, the food drive, culminating on Sept. 19, collected more than 257,000 pounds of food within the city of Edmonton and 137,000 pounds of food from surrounding communities, with the majority of donations benefiting Edmonton’s Food Bank. Latter-day Saints organized the food drive, advertised the event, delivered bags to homes in advance and spent hours going door-to-door to collect donations.
Chantelle McMullin, of the Yellowbird Ward in the Edmonton Alberta Gateway Stake, said one of the greatest moments of the food drive is when families who have been out collecting donations return to meetinghouses with cars and trucks full of food and able to see the impact of all the food gathered together.
“We have families who have grown up doing this food drive every single year, and they love it,” she said.
JustServe is used to coordinate the whole event, allowing volunteers to sign up and invite friends and neighbors to serve with them. The JustServe platform is a free online tool created by the Church to connect volunteers with charitable and nonprofit organizations worldwide. JustServe is available online at justserve.org and on the JustServe app (Apple, Android).
“If you’re not using JustServe, you are living below your privileges in the Church,” McMullin said. “It’s such a powerful, powerful tool to open doors of friendship.”
McMullin said volunteers will receive a route assignment of neighborhoods to collect donations. In total, 250,000 homes are visited within the city and another 50,000 homes are visited outside the city.
As the food drive has grown, more and more community organizations, including other churches and the local fire department, have joined in.
“We’re also creating a sense of community, and we’re bringing together the people who want to love their fellow man,” McMullin said.
This year, schools in the area participated for the first time, with students bringing donations to school and dropping them in collection boxes. In the small town of Slave Lake in northern Alberta, students collected 1,000 pounds of cereal.
“We were up 139% [of donations] for that specific food bank,” McMullin said.
The event has blossomed into the largest collection event for food banks in the area, according to McMullin. She said the Lord has been able to magnify the service and faith of those who participate.
“We feed our souls, and we are filled with his love and charity for others,” she said.
From one spiritual impression to a massive undertaking
The drive started in 2009, after John McQuay “had an overwhelming impression” that his ward should do a food drive.
McQuay was in the bishopric in his ward at the time. He said after that impression came, there was also some opposition, with some people concerned about how to pull it off, but McQuay never doubted.
“I think we just had a lot faith that it was going to work — that we could do some good,” McQuay said. “And the support that we had from the members was phenomenal.”
After that first year, the food drive expanded from three wards to the full stake. And it continued to expand to more wards and stakes each year.
McQuay said he doesn’t like to “toot his own horn,” but points to the Lord, who gave him the impression to act. “He knew that I would do it, I guess.”
McQuay also praised the people who have responded to assignments and invitations to make it a success.
“The people caught the spirit. All the people who were asked by their bishop to serve, they jumped on board,” he said. “I feel very privileged to have been just a small part of it.”
Praise in the House of Commons
Kelly McCauley, a member of the House of Commons of Canada, praised the Edmonton food drive and efforts by members of the Church in a speech on the House floor on Friday, Oct. 30.
“I want to give a special thanks again to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and all the volunteers — they’ve shown once again why Edmonton is known as the city of champions,” he said.
McCauley also joined volunteers collecting donations on Sept. 19.
