Despite a few "road bumps," a teacher at St. Patrick’s Catholic High School says this year's Irish Miracle food drive was a big success for the St. Vincent de Paul food bank.
Volunteers canvassed about 100 routes in Sarnia, Bright's Grove, and Point Edward on December 7 to collect non-perishables and hygiene items.
In total, volunteers collected 4,500 bags of items for the food bank and $1,133 in monetary donations.
Vanessa Borody said most of the routes were covered, but not all. For those that were missed, Borody offered sincere apologies.
"There was definitely some chatter on social media, quite a few people were upset that we didn't get to their houses," she said. "There's part of me who always feels so bad that people didn't make it out there -- didn't make it to different areas, and there's always a part of me who says, 'hey, we're doing our best.'"
Borody said routes are assigned to volunteers but if a group doesn't show-up, the route is sometimes left uncanvassed. In those cases, some volunteers will slowly drive along unassigned routes and will stop when they see bags left out on front porches.
"Sometimes it'll just be one person or it might just be a couple. We have an elderly couple who drove and did a route together," she said. "Obviously, we're not going to send two people in their 70s knocking on doors for three hours so we just ask them to drive by the area and pick up any bags that they see."
Borody said about 100 routes were covered.
In total, there were approximately 450 volunteers, 300 were kids/ youth.
The amount of donated items collected this year is down compared to previous years. Last year, volunteers collected about 5,000 bags and boxes of non-perishable food items; whereas in 2016, volunteers collected 8,000 bags and 300 boxes of food.
Borody said there are a few reasons why totals are smaller, one of which has to do with the current cost of groceries.
Totals may also be skewed since reusable bags are different sizes, some of which are quite large.
"In the past, we actually used to give 50 plastic bags to a group and now we're only giving 12 reusable bags, and picking up some throughout the community as we go," Borody said. "I feel like, finally next year will be a really good comparison for the first time, since the whole plastic bag fiasco. It's great we're not using them -- for sure, but I think we need to have a couple of years under our belt where those comparable numbers are actually comparable."
Borody said they also heard from volunteers that some residents were unwilling to open their front door because they were concerned about scammers.
In the meantime, Borody thanked those who were able to give this year and said it was an "incredible" Irish Miracle.
"There was a lot of generosity by the community even in these uncertain times, and it was just really felt," she said. "It was really successful and I'm really grateful to Sarnia and the greater community."
This year marked the 41st annual Irish Miracle.
Borody said residents who still have items to donate can do so by dropping them off at St. Vincent de Paul food bank.