Pledging to our local charities is an important part of the Sudbury Dragon Boat Festival tradition. Over the past 10 years, paddlers and the endorsed charities have raised over $1.25 million in support of their capital campaigns. In 2010 all money pledged will go in support of the Banque d'ailments Sudbury Food Bank. Our past endorsed charities include; the Independent Living Sudbury-Manitioulin, the Multiple Sclerosis Society, the Alzheimer Society and the Sudbury Regional Hospital Foundation.
This year the Sudbury Dragon Boat Festival has chosen to endorse the Banque d'aliments Sudbury Food Bank.The Sudbury Food Bank is dedicated to ensuring that every person in the City of Greater
of Sudbury has enough to eat.
Banque d’aliments Sudbury Food Bank’s (BDSFB) beginnings can be traced back to 1988 and community minded members of Sudbury, who saw a need in our community to provide consistent funding to local food banks. Since that time the BDSFB has grown and is supported by a very strong board of directors, which include local politicians and business professionals.
The BDSFB is a very simple concept; our mandate is that every dollar raised be translated into food on the table. We have to date operated as an organization to raise funds, which we in turn transfer to area food banks/meal providers in the form of food credits at area ood suppliers. In this way we guarantee that every dollar contributed will be directly translated into food on someone’s table. In current years we have also undertaken to raise awareness, support and lend support to all of the organizations under our umbrella. We also have to raise awareness and give opportunities to groups of individuals to assist clients in eliminating food insecurity issues through educating, budget training, developing health eating habits and life style choices etc.
We act as an umbrella organization to assist over 45 food banks/ Meal providers in our region including the Salvation Army, Inner City Home, John Howard Society, Meals on Wheels, Elgin Street Mission, Blue Door Soup kitchen, Our Children Our Future and many area church food banks. We assist agencies with their Breakfast and after school program.
Since its inception, BDSFB has transferred over $4.7 million and 850 tons of food to area food banks and agencies.
In October 2000 BDSFB purchased a building which after renovations is now known as the McKee Wong Centre. The McKee Wong Centre is a multi-purpose building with a focus on being a food warehouse allowing us to store and distribute large food donations from food drives and national food sharing programs.
Our hunger count shows over 13,500 people a month; regrettably, have to use food banks or meal providers in the Region of Greater Sudbury. The Sudbury Food Bank assist these people by delivering over 284 tons of food (last year 2009 alone) to our 45 Member Organizations to ensure a safe, nutritional, and healthy food supply to be given to our areas hungry. Our Warehouse at 634 Notre Dame Avenue was never expected to deal with these incredible volumes of food. To this end our Board has made a decision to actively seek a capitol funding opportunity to: #1 replace the existing Building and #2 to bring operations more in line with modern efficient warehouse operations to allow for faster distribution of food supplies to our 45 Member Agencies in the region to get food to those that are hungry faster. We thank the Sudbury Dragon Boat Festival for its willingness to asset us in our efforts to raise funds for the new warehouse to better service our community.
Who is eligible for a tax receipt?
Anyone who pledges $10.00 or more is eligible for a tax receipt (the tax receipt request box must be checked on the pledge form). Name and full address must be legible. Where do I get my pledge forms from?
Your team's Pledge Coordinator will have copies of pledge forms for you. When and where do I hand in my collected pledges? Pledges can be submitted at the 1500 Pub on Friday from 5pm to 9pm. Pledges that will be handed after the festival should be taken directly to the Banque d'aliments Sudbury Food Bank. | 
