The London Food Bank is focusing its Thanksgiving collection drive on combatting hunger among children and youth after a local public health office’s concern over growing food insecurity.

When the food drive kicks off later this week, co-executive director Glen Pearson said the focus on kids is a return to the effort’s formative years. He said a Middlesex-London Health Unit report’s warning to municipalities about growing food insecurity prompted the agency to train its attention on youth.

“For the first 15 years, this food drive, when it started 37 years ago was called breakfast for kids, and it’s because, back then, there weren’t a lot of school breakfast or meal programs that were helping kids in school,” Pearson said.

“But then, food banks got bigger and bigger, demand got wider and

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