ESTEVAN - Once again, Green For Life (GFL) Environmental in Estevan has kicked off a food drive for the Salvation Army.
The Southeast College, The Black Grasshopper, Affinity Credit Union, CIBC, TS&M Supply and GFL themselves will partake in a friendly competition, all while raising much-needed supplies for the food bank.
"This year, we had contacted the Salvation Army to see what food items they needed, and pretty much they needed everything," said Allison Dinsmore with GFL Environmental. "We're calling our challenge this year Let it Snow and the Food Towers Grow. So we're giving the businesses an opportunity to just be creative and come up with some sort of food tower using any non-perishable food items that the Salvation Army can use."
The competition started Monday and will continue until Dec. 15. Mayor Roy Ludwig and city manager Jeff Ward agreed to be the celebrity judges. On the final day, along with Dinsmore, they will go to each participating business and decide who would claim the first, second and third places.
"It's just a friendly competition, so there's no actual prize. It's just a feel-good competition," Dinsmore said.
Then all collected food donations will be delivered to the food bank.
Dinsmore said that not only is this a great way to support a local organization, which helps everyone in need in the community, but it's also a wonderful way to bond and have some great time together for the businesses.
"It's a staff bonding (activity). They get right into it and build these towers," Dinsmore said. "The last couple of years have been very creative. Some do Christmas scenes. TS&M did an actual city one year. It's neat, what they come up with. It's completely open to however creative you want to be, and it just involves the whole staff in all the different businesses so it can be a lot of fun and great for team building," Dinsmore said.
Most items are collected by the employees, but if residents want to support anyone in that competition, they can drop off their donations of any non-perishable food items at the business of their choice.
It's the third year for GFL Environmental holding food drives for the Salvation Army at Christmas time, and Dinsmore said they really value this partnership.
"GFL Environmental is always interested in helping out the community that we serve. We like to help out where there's a need. And we saw that the Salvation Army is always in need of food for the community. So we thought we'd be a good partnership," Dinsmore explained.
If anyone else wants to join the challenge, they would always be welcome. They can give Dinsmore a call at the office at 306-634-7209.
