PENTICTON – The Salvation Army Food bank needs help stocking their shelves and the Penticton Peach Festival is challenging all Peters Bros. Grand Parade goers.

Following the tide of the One Bag Challenge, the Peach Festival donated groceries to the Penticton food bank on Tuesday and now are forwarding the call to action to the community to come to the parade with non-perishable food items or cash for donation.

The One Bag Challenge was initiated by Kelowna Mayor Colin Basran who donated groceries to the Central Okanagan Food Bank then made a video challenging five others to do the same within a 48-hour time period. Those five people or groups are then to create their own video or photo proof urging five more people to do the same.

“We really hope the community rallies around the idea of the One Bag Challenge, or brings whatever they can to support our local food bank during a time where demand is outpacing supply,” said Peachfest president Don Kendall.

Penticton food bank organizers said they are busy with clients throughout the year and in the summer they receive a lot of fresh produce but sometimes items such as canned goods or peanut butter are overlooked and still needed.

“The food bank is busy all the time now. We have seen a lot more seniors who can’t make ends meet on their incomes. We have families who might only have one adult working and it is not enough to meet the demands they face and, of course, there are people on disability and social assistance who only receive so much money and need to help to stretch their budget,” said Capt. Miriam Leslie of the Penticton Salvation Army. “I think it is really neat what is happening with the One Bag Challenge and in the summer receiving donations from the community at the Peachfest parade is a huge help to us.”

Sheila Peterson, family services supervisor for the Salvation Army, said they have teamed up with Home Hardware who is providing a flat deck truck for them to accept donations while walking down the parade route. The Salvation Army will also have their cargo van in the parade.

“We will accept cash donations and any non-perishable canned goods. Things like canned beans, canned fish, canned vegetable or boxes of food that are good quality to keep people healthy is a great donation. The people in this community are so supportive of the food bank and concerned for those in need and we all appreciate that,” said Peterson.

On Saturday, Aug. 6, come down to the 69th annual Penticton Peachfest parade with non-perishable food, cash or text in a donation to their parade entry. The Salvation Army Food Bank is also teaming up with Sun/FM, Valley First and the Penticton firefighters. They will be riding in two trucks with kettles and volunteers to collect food donations. The Vancouver Police Motorcycle Drill team kicks off the morning at 9:30 am. with the main body of the Peters Bros. Grand Parade starting at 10 a.m. For more on the Peach Festival visit: www.peachfest.com.