Twice a year, hundreds of food banks and community food programs across the country can count on a welcome lifeline in the form of the Loblaw Feed More Families® Food Drive. Every spring and holiday season, this recurring campaign supports the community organizations that are trying to keep pace with a quiet yet severe emergency: the rapidly growing level of food insecurity in Canada.
From November 28 until December 24, 2025, Loblaw stores across Canada (see the banner names at the end of this post) are inviting customers to make a monetary donation to Food Banks Canada at checkout. Loblaw will match these donations up to a total of $100,000. There will also be collection bins at the front of the store where people can purchase and donate food items. The products that food banks typically most need include canned meat/fish, canned vegetables, nut butters, and low-sugar canned fruit.
Local food banks will receive 100% of the food and funds collected at stores in their communities.
Gifts With Impact
The funds from Feed More Families® campaigns are unrestricted, meaning that each food bank can judge how best to use them. Last year, they reported collectively spending small proportions to deliver food to clients and pick up donations (e.g. vehicle maintenance, gas), to build their capacity to handle food and serve clients (e.g. storage, refrigeration, etc.) and for the needs that arise from day-to-day operations (e.g. IT, utilities).
But they spent the bulk of these donations (87%) on food. Robust food-purchasing budgets are increasingly crucial for food banks, because they’re serving more clients than ever before in recorded history.
Food Banks Canada’s HungerCount 2025 report, released in October, found that visits to food banks across the country have doubled over the past six years, from nearly 1.1 million per month in 2019 to nearly 2.2 million in 2025. Communities have continued to donate food generously, but not always at a rate that has kept up with this dramatic increase in need.
As a result, buying food has become a common practice: nearly 80% of food banks did so to make up for insufficient food donations in 2025, according to HungerCount. One of them is the Kanata Food Cupboard in Ontario. “[We’ve] experienced remarkable growth in the number of families relying on our services, and 2024-25 has been no exception,” says executive director Cara-Leigh Wyllie. “But thanks to the overwhelming support from our community and the success of the Feed More Families campaigns, we are able to keep our shelves stocked and continue serving those in need.”
Purchasing food also allows food banks to stock options that aren’t often donated, such as food that meets special dietary needs, or foods that aren’t always practical to receive as donations, like perishables.
“We use these funds to purchase the fresh, nutritious and culturally-preferred foods that our visitors most value,” says Carrie Belanger, food security manager at Sources Community Resources Society, which operates food banks in Surrey and Langley, BC. “Together, we are nourishing hope and strengthening our community.”
Community Ties
Many of the same stores that host Feed More Families® Food Drives also participate in Food Banks Canada’s Retail Food Program. This program directs a continuous supply of surplus food from grocery stores to matched food banks all year round.
The biannual food drives help to bolster the relationships between local stores and food banks, while amplifying the stores’ impact on hunger and rallying the local community.
“These campaigns boost our food-recovery efforts, but they also serve as an important way to strengthen our partnerships with our four Zehrs, two No Frills, one Wholesale Club and their teams,” explains Karen Shuh, executive director of Barrie Food Bank in Ontario. “Within each banner, they are quite competitive and try to outdo each other’s efforts, which we obviously support!”
“This will be the second year that all Zehrs store managers and their department heads will join us in the spring for a food sort,” Shuh adds. “This is an opportunity for us to get them inside our warehouse and show them the scale of what we do, why every food donation matters, and what categories we offer to our clients. It reinforces a sense of community connection and shared purpose: ensuring everyone has access to food.”
“Loblaw Feed More Families does exactly what its name suggests: it empowers local food banks to feed more families, which is unfortunately exactly what they must do right now,” says Kirstin Beardsley, CEO of Food Banks Canada. “They can’t serve nearly 2.2 million visits each month without support from businesses and communities. It’s encouraging that even when times are challenging and uncertain, people in Canada are there for each other.”
“We’re grateful to Loblaw for their longstanding commitment to Food Banks Canada — over 15 years so far!” Beardsley continues. “The Loblaw managers who implement the campaign, the employees who share it at the tills, the customers who make gifts big and small: these are the people whose simple actions add up to make a powerful difference for our neighbours.”
“This is an incredible partnership, and we are so thankful to Food Banks Canada for making it possible and helping us maintain such a strong connection with our local Loblaw banner stores,” says Shuh. “We look forward to participating in the upcoming holiday food drive!”
Help your local food bank meet the needs of all with a gift in the collection bin or a cash donation at Lolbaw Banner stores.
