Wrap-up for annual Edgar Burton Christmas Food Drive & Kids Helping Kids Food Drive; December 18, 2015 Photo Credit: Angela Gemmill
Wrap-up for annual Edgar Burton Christmas Food Drive & Kids Helping Kids Food Drive; December 18, 2015
Photo Credit: Angela Gemmill

By Angela Gemmill

Over 100-tons of food….with more still to be collected.

It was another successful year for the Edgar Burton Christmas Food Drive and the Kids Helping Kids Food Drive.

422 businesses and more than 40 schools took part in the five-week campaign which collects food and monetary donations for the Sudbury Food Bank.

Board Chair Greg Fontaine says the inititiave continues to improve every year.

He says what was collected represents about one-quarter of what the food bank will need over the next year.

The Sudbury Food Bank helps close to 17-thousand clients every month. through its 47-member agencies.

Churchill Public School Principal Dave Farrow was thrilled with the results from the Rainbow District School Board.

He says their goal was 200,000 food items, but the students and staff from the 40+ schools collected 277,000 food items, including $25,000 in cash donations.

The annual food drive is the largest per capita in Ontario.

It started small 28-years ago, when the late Edgar Burton set out a box at his work to collect food for the food bank, at the request of his young daughters.

It’s only grown larger every year since.