The stakes are high as the citizens of Victoria and Regina prepare for a friendly competition aimed at restocking their city food banks.

With usage climbing and supplies down at Victoria's Mustard Seed Food Bank, Mayor Dean Fortin was keen to join the challenge of the Great Canadian Food Fight along with his Regina counterpart, Pat Fiacco. For 36 hours, beginning at

6 a.m. Friday, Victorians and Regina residents will vie to see who can donate the most food for people in need.

While helping others is the goal, the two competing mayors have added a light-hearted wager to the mix. If Victoria loses, Fortin has to travel to Regina and shovel snow from Fiacco's driveway. A Victoria win would see Fiacco come here to mow Fortin's lawn.

Mustard Seed director Brent Palmer sees the "food fight" as a good way to raise awareness of the situation, which is affecting other local food banks as well. At the Mustard Seed, there has been a jump to 7,200 from 5,000 in the number of monthly food bank users over the past year -- an increase of about 40 per cent.

Of those, 1,650 are children younger than 12 and more than 1,000 are seniors on fixed incomes.

"I'm certainly getting concerned about the escalation of our stats," Palmer said. "People that we've never seen before are showing up on the doorstep."

Palmer explained that the challenge with Regina stemmed from a conversation he had in June at the annual general meeting of Food Banks Canada. He and a representative from the Regina and District Food Bank decided to reprise a similar event that pitted Regina against Winnipeg.

"Our goal here is 180 tons, and I think we can do it -- I don't think, I know we have to do it."

Drop-off locations for donations include eight fire stations in Victoria, Saanich, Esquimalt and Oak Bay, along with Fairfield New Horizons, Dodd's Furniture, Ogden Point's Pier A warehouse, and many supermarkets, schools and churches. The challenge was announced Monday at Ogden Point, and the collection effort will kick off Friday -- World Food Day -- at Dodd's Furniture.

Palmer said he can see the event being picked up in more cities across the country in the future.