Jess Gould / XFM News
Billy Talent’s latest tour has teamed up with the London Food Bank to help raise donations.
In a statement online, Billy Talent vocalized the issue of food insecurities brought on by the pandemic “We want to do something to address this so we’ll be working with a local food bank in each of the upcoming tour cities to collect food for them to distribute to those who most need it.”
Fans attending the tour across Canada are encouraged to continue bringing non-perishable items to the show to the designated drop-off areas at the venue. London is the final stop for the Eastern leg of Billy Talent’s Canadian tour and will begin their Western Canada leg on April 29 in Winnipeg.
London Food Bank Co-Executive Director Jane Roy was delighted to be approached by the musicians “We can’t tell you how much we appreciate them approaching us and doing this and raising awareness. The one can of tuna makes a difference. The one box of cereal, or the one person hearing the message, and having it come from a group like that. It’s a wonderful thing because it’s just that constant message that we need to take care of each other, we really appreciate being part of it.”
London Food Bank volunteers ready for donations in partnership with Billy Talent at Budweiser Gardens CREDIT: @BillyTalentBand on Twitter
When the pandemic began in March of 2020, the number of people that originally were coming to the London Food Bank shot up for the first few weeks of the first month. After those first few weeks, government programs were introduced to help, and the number of people coming to the food bank followed a downward trend.
Once government programs came to an end, Roy recalls donations came back to the food bank to help the community in need. “This has been two years, it’s crazy. Our donations actually went up. It didn’t go up with regards to food, they went up with regards to money. People then started giving us money for food. And it was pretty amazing. So while the food donations went down, the monetary donations went up.”
Billy Talent, performing their Crisis of Faith tour with Rise Against and NOBRO will also continue to make financial donations to the food bank after every show.
“There were job losses, the cost of food, inflation has gone up, rents have gone up, people can’t find affordable places to live. So we’ve been slowly seeing our numbers increase. And we’re actually past pre-pandemic levels. So the numbers during the month of March, we had our second busiest month ever, in terms of people needing us.”
Londoners gather together for Billy Talent CREDIT: Jess Gould / XFM News
Roy continues that this food drive collaboration with Billy Talent is helping to boost awareness for the raised demand food banks are facing “Things like this food drive is amazing because it brings awareness to what people are going through, and it brings support. I know that even if people forget to bring items, people can still make monetary donations, or they can drop off their donations at most grocery stores. So for us, it’s always, whatever comes in is great. And Londoners have been really wonderful about donating throughout the course of this time, and we need them.”
While monetary and food donations can go a long way, Roy also notes other donations the London Food Bank can accept. “Some of the other items we don’t tend to think too much about is some of the non-food items like feminine hygiene products or toiletries, baby items are definitely as needed as well.”
Donations can be made in a multitude of ways to the London Food Bank, including online through CanadaHelps, or during their operating hours for in-person contributions. More information on how to help and get involved can be found at londonfoodbank.ca.
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