The Inn of the Good Shepherd's annual Thanksgiving collection will look different this year, but the need continues.
The organization is no longer distributing paper bags in the mail, however donations are still being gratefully accepted.
Program Manager Adrienne McPhee said there was a large expense in mailing out the bags.
"Every dollar that we get donated from the community, we want to be able to go right back into our programs and services so that there's more food on our food bank shelves," said McPhee. The typical bags that folks are used to seeing they will not be going out this year, however, that does not mean that the need has changed at all. If anything it's larger than ever which is why we've made this difficult switch."
McPhee said the Inn's services continue to be well used.
"We're averaging somewhere between 2,200 and 2,400 people every month (at the food bank) and then we have another 400 to 450 households visiting our mobile market program which is running until the end of October," she said. "On an average month we're serving over 3,000 meals in our daily soup kitchen. So all combined it's thousands of folks that we're supporting every month."
McPhee said thankfully they haven't had to turn anyone away from services, despite a decline in donations over the past few years.
"I think everybody is feeling the pinch of inflation the high cost of living is affecting everybody including our donors," she said. "We've had to scale back maybe the quantity that folks are getting but no we're not turning anyone away and our food bank is still open and operational five days a week."
She said they're in the greatest need of items like pasta, pasta sauce, canned meat, Individually wrapped school snacks, cereal, rice, condiments and spices.
Donations can be made by visiting the Inn's website or by dropping them off at 115 John Street in Sarnia.
Non-perishable food items can be dropped off anytime Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
