Pack the Cruiser helps Regina Food Bank deal with summer needs

The Regina Food Bank sees an increased demand for their services in the summer but fewer donations.

So the Food Bank partnered with the RCMP Academy and Regina Police Service (RPS) for the second annual Pack The Cruiser event. The focus of the event, as the name implies, is to pack a police cruiser full offood that is then donated to the Food Bank.

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"It really helps us through the summer months. Hunger never takes a vacation," said Shelley Armbruster, community engagement coordinatorwith the Regina Food Bank.

Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter are when most people donate, but in the summer with children out of school Armbrustersaid families are under more strain to provide meals for their children.

"In the summertime people don't even think about it," said Armbruster. "This will carry us through until the middle of summer to the end of summer."

8,500 to 10,000 people rely on the Food Bank each month, and 47 per cent are children.

Const.MitchWiebe with RPS said he felt the event was a way for the police to be more approachable and to give the community a chance to interact with them.

"Our biggest thing is we want to community to know we're here to help and give back," said Wiebe.

Early on Sunday roughly900 kg of food had been donated to the program.