The Holiday Food Drive at the Daily Bread Food Bank is off to a slow start.  The campaign is about 2 weeks in and usually by this time, the warehouse floor is stacked to the ceiling with crates of food but it seems there is a little more elbow room this year.

Daily Bread Food Bank director Gail Nyberg says donations of food are sagging slightly.

Volunteers are typically busy sorting about 100,000 lbs. of food by now but as of this week the food bank has only collected about 85,000 lbs.

"December is our big time so we expect those numbers to climb," says Nyberg.

Sagging contributions from big food labels could be partly to blame.

Bill Laidlaw, Director of the Ontario Association of Food Banks, says those companies are cutting production in light of the slow economy.

"Those companies would much rather be more efficient and sell (their product) than give it to us," he says.

He adds it is an issue faced by food banks across Ontario.

The Daily Bread Food Bank aims to collect $1.5 million and 1 million lbs. of food through December 31st.

Nyberg says the food bank has collected $340,000 in cash donations so far and adds that all donations of non-perishable food are welcome.

Items that are high in protein like canned meat, peanut butter and beans are in particularly high demand.

Nyberg appreciates that many Torontonians are going are trying to stretch household budgets these days, but says if you don't have cash or food to spare, she'd love to have you down at the warehouse to pack up some Christmas hampers.

"We can certainly use a couple of hours of your time at this time of year," she says.