From left, City of Prince George Transit Manager Dave Bradshaw, Mayor Lyn Hall, and Captain Neil Wilkinson – photo 250News

Prince George, B.C. – The City of Prince George dropped off the proceeds of its annual Food for Fare program at the Prince George Salvation Army this morning.

Captain Neil Wilkinson said the roughly 400 pounds of food will be put to good use.

“Food for Fare is one of the programs that contributes to the ongoing successful operation of the food bank,” he said. “We’re currently serving 1,500 families each and every month and so it takes a massive amount of food to keep that number of people fed and so it’s really helpful.”

Just how far does 400 pounds go?

“It actually goes a long way because as we were unloading the food I was looking in the boxes and there were all kinds of good stuff like peanut butter and tuna. The more expensive canned goods that the food bank runs out of pretty quickly.”

Mayor Lyn Hall was also on hand for today’s drop-off and noted it was all for a great cause.

“It’s a program that is absolutely necessary in our community and it’s unfortunate, but thankfully the Salvation Army are here to provide food and groceries to those that are in need. Not just this time of year but year round.”

The program, which has been in place at this time of the year for more than a decade, allowed passengers on BC Transit buses to board at no cash cost if they made a donation of at least one non-perishable food item.

The donations were collected over three days last week.