Siblings organize food drive to help hungry.
Victoria Jagmohan, 11, left, and her brother Shawn, 14, have collected 1,222 pounds of food to help feed children. (Aug. 10, 2010)
Photo/COURTESY
Visits to homeless shelters inspired two Scarborough siblings to help the hungry.
"We were surprised with what we saw, with the way they were living," 14-year-old Shawn Jagmohan said. "So we decided to start our own food drive."
Shawn and his 11-year-old sister, Victoria raised 295 kilograms (650 pounds) of food for the Daily Bread Food Bank last year. This summer they collected 554 kilograms (1,222 pounds) of food for the North York Harvest Food Bank.
"We created flyers and distributed it in our community and asked for food donations," Shawn said.
The siblings also set up stands at a big box store.
"I would be at one entrance and my brother at the other," said Victoria. "We went to Wal-Mart twice and raised $160 cash and about 75 pounds of food. We used the money to buy the most needed items that were on sale."
Shawn and Victoria collected food on weekends and Wednesdays in July and early August.
The food was taken to the food bank by truck on Aug. 13.
"A lot more ethnic people are using the food bank," Victoria said. "They may not be accustomed to macaroni and cheese, so we tried to get rice, flour, lentils, oils."
The siblings plan to start a program next summer to teach youths how to run food drives.
"I want to try to get the message out: there are people who are not as lucky as we are to have an air conditioned home and have food on the table. And we can change that," Shawn said. "We want to try to do our part to diminish poverty and encourage others to do the same."