It’s a busy bus picking up a bounty of donations left out for needy families in Hamilton. It’s the twelfth annual Kirkendall neighborhood “Fill a bus, feed a family food drive”. Residents fill donation bags and leave them out to be picked up. Run by volunteers concerned about food scarcity.

On average the drive collects between 15 and 17 thousand pounds of food for mission services in Hamilton. Susan Smith coordinates things on the mission’s end and says the need for food donations is on the rise. In 2018 more than eleven thousand families were served by the mission and so far this year numbers are up.

Smith says the cancellation of the basic income pilot project by the ford government has resulted in a greater need for emergency food services. The program provided a basic income regardless of employment for one thousand Hamilton residents, and she says it’s removal makes food drives like this one all the more important.

The food drive has collected more than 126 thousand pounds of food since 2007 and another food drive is already planned for July as the association looks to build on it’s success.