It’s a great way to get out from under the paper clutter — and feed the hungry.
Shred-It officials will destroy up to two file boxes of confidential documents for free when you make a donation at the Spring Food Drive and Shred-a-thon at the Cottonwood Mall on Saturday, June 11.
It’s become a tradition with the efforts of Shred-It, City of Chilliwack, and Emterra Environmental, which make disposal of unneeded documents easier while supporting the food bank at the same time.
It will be a timely event, said Don Armstrong, food bank coordinator at the Chilliwack Salvation Army.
“Right now our food and cash reserves are very low,” he said.
Officials will be accepting boxes of paper and food bank donations from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the mall parking lot.
Cash donations always offer Sally Ann officials the best bang for their buck.
“For every dollar donated, we can buy two dollars worth of food,” said Armstrong.
They’re in that post-Christmas collection lull, and buying in bulk always helps them stretch a dollar.
“For the first time in May, we had to go buy bread instead of securing donations of it. Bread and potatoes are items we said we always wanted to include.” he said.
For some reason, the stores that used to give them day-old bread have started reducing the merchandise and keeping it in-store.
But a 28 per cent increase in demand for local food bank and soup kitchen services, from 2008 to 2011, is very significant, said Law.
“We’re seeing a lot of single parents with babies lately.
“Also the highest level of food bank use for 2010 was reported across Canada,” he said.
Of course Chilliwack’s reputation for its generosity is well-known, he said.
“They always come on-board right away.”
Emterra Environ-mental will match cash donations to the food bank up to $500.