Thank you so much. Over the past twenty years, the Dairy Farmers of Ontario have given so much to Ontario’s food banks. In 2014 alone, your generosity meant that more than 850,000 liters of milk was received by people in need all over the province. That’s almost 3.5 million cups of milk that have been given to children so that they can grow up healthy and strong!
Though it’s easy to count how many liters of milk you have given, it’s hard to quantify the impact your gift has had upon the lives of the families who have received it – families who otherwise would have had to go without. As the saying goes, farmers feed cities. Dairy farmers were the first in the province to step up and feed their most vulnerable neighbours, and we can never thank you enough.
Beyond the Milk Program, the OAFB also has developed partnerships with other provincial producer groups. Donations through these programs have been been instrumental in achieving our goal of increasing the availability of fresh, nutritious food to people in need, a wonderful complement to our long-standing Milk Program.
Sadly, this past year, donations have been down to the OAFB, and yet the need remains exceptionally high. This past year, our food banks served 359,000 people each month. Good, stable jobs continue to get cut and are replaced by part-time, precarious work – and it’s not enough to raise a family on. At the same time, the price of housing, food, and other basic goods are rising rapidly.