Move over Ice Bucket Challenge, there’s a new viral charity movement in town.
It’s called the One Bag Challenge and it started in Kelowna, B.C.
Summer time can be a hard for food banks as oftentimes, the demand exceeds donations. This inspired Kelowna Mayor to take action.
He donated a bag of groceries to the Central Okanagan Food Bank and challenged five more people to do the same, and then nominate five of their friends.
I heard the Food Bank needs our help, so I am starting the `One Bag Challenge`. I nominate Maxine DeHart, Andre Blanleil, Renee Merrifield Wasylyk, Darryl Reuter, and Roz Huber! You all have 48 hours to complete your challenge…..
Posted by Mayor Colin Basran on Monday, July 18, 2016
His simple challenge took off like wildfire and in one week, more than 16,000 pounds of food have been given to the Central Okanagan Food Bank.
It even prompted a social media campaign, as many people posted pictures of themselves doing their good deeds with the hashtag #OneBagChallenge.
#OneBagChallenge. We nominate @communitysift, @VIATEC, @WavefrontAC, @kicpeople, & @_Datanerds. #poweroffive pic.twitter.com/L8HHPtqNdi
— Accelerate Okanagan (@AccelerateOK) July 25, 2016
Considering that the stuff that usually goes viral are silly memes and Vine videos, it’s nice to see a good cause like this get the support it deserves. And for anybody still doubting the effectiveness of challenges like this, we just learned this week that the Ice Bucket Challenge helped fund a major breakthrough in ALS research so there.