Motorists help top up levels at city food banks

By Dale Woodard - Lethbridge Herald on December 9, 2021.

Motorists bringing in their vehicles to make sure all fluids were topped up heading into the winter months also did their part to top up the Lethbridge Food Bank and the Lethbridge Interfaith Food Bank.
The annual Free Lube, Oil & Filter event benefiting both local food banks took place at Davis GMC Buick this past weekend, with all proceeds going to the Interfaith Food Bank or Lethbridge Food Bank, with Davis matching those funds raised.
While traffic was down a bit after the event was put in park last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Davis general manager Chris Broad nonetheless noted the intent of the annual event. 
“Both food banks are here. They send volunteer staff over to help with the collection of the donations and tax receipts are issued. Our teams donate their time, the Davis family and the organization donates the oil and filters. So everybody who comes in today is donating to a great cause at the food banks and gets an oil change out of it.”
The fundraiser has now just passed the quarter-century mark.
“I think the employees rallied around the opportunity at Christmas time to support the food banks and it just got momentum from there,” said Broad. “I think the food banks are always looking for assistance throughout the year, but people do have the food banks on their minds a little more at this time of year. Our team is willing to step up and donate their time to do that and the community rallies around it.”
On hand to assist with donations at Saturday’s event was Mac Nichol, executive director of the Lethbridge Food Bank.
“Davis GMC puts this on for us and we’re really glad to be here for both food banks,” he said. “It helps everybody in the community and we’re glad to be a part of it.”
The onset of the winter months combined with the holiday season ties the event together nicely.
“The snow starts falling and it starts to become a little more serious on a couple of people’s bills and food is a very important need,” said Nichol. “So having this to spark the season of giving and Davis coming on board to do this is a really big moment for us. This is their 26th year doing it, so it’s something really big for both food banks and it really starts our season off well.”
After putting the event on hold last year due to the pandemic, Broad noted traffic was a bit lighter by mid-Saturday morning.
“So maybe there was a bit of a momentum loss given not having it last year, but we’ve seen about 40 individuals come through this year,” he said, adding in past years roughly 100 vehicles would come through.
In 2019, Nichol said about $25,000 was raised for both of the food banks.
“That has been pretty consistent over the years. So we’re excited to be back for it this year. The hiatus was something we definitely noticed,” he said. “Keeping the momentum going on these types of things is a big deal, so we did expect a little bit of a downturn this year. But just starting it up again is the big key. Even then, we’ve seen a lot of people coming in, even though it is a minimum donation of $100. We’ve seen a lot of donors come in and give us quite a bit more for their oil change. So it’s really nice to see the community come out like this.”

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