Feeding the hungry, one meal at a time

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Feeding the hungry, one meal at a time

Details: Published on Friday, October 21, 2016

Photos by Tony Eu. Through a competition organzied by members of NACI’s HOPE group, the school collected 411.8 lbs of food, which they loaded into two vehicles to be taken to Neepawa’s FCC office.

By Tony Eu

Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

Farm Credit Canada (FCC)’s food drive, Drive Away Hunger, is now officially over. Having started on May 9 and ended on Oct. 14, Drive Away Hunger received over 11,000 meals worth of donations from across the Neepawa, Minnedosa and Carberry areas.

The number of meals collected is calculated based off of the weight of food donations, monetary donations and donations made via grocery stores. A total of 2,618 lbs of food items was donated

The food and money raised is being given to the local food banks in Neepawa, Minnedosa and Carberry.

“We were very pleased this year with how it went,” said Theresa Francis, the relationship management associate for the Neepawa FCC office. “I would say that the food collections from the various participants were up in general. Overall, I would say we stayed very similar to last year, but the food, in poundage, was up,” she added.

One of the participants was the local high school, Neepawa Area Collegiate Institute (NACI).

Junior high members of NACI’s HOPE group organized and held a competition to help raise food for Drive Away Hunger. Points were assigned to food products and the middle school (Grade 6 to 8) class that brought in the most food would get one ‘free class’ of their choice.

The junior high HOPE members who worked on the food drive competition as well as a representative from FCC and the school staff advisor.

The class that won the competition was Mrs. Chandler’s Grade 8 class.

If you wanted to donate food to Drive Away Hunger but never got around to it, don’t worry. Another big food drive is coming up and this time, it’ll be coming to you. On Halloween, students from the local schools will be trick-or-treating around town, but not for candy. Instead, students will be treat-or-treating for non-perishable food items as part of the Scare Away Hunger food drive.

NACI will also be participating in this event, with students starting their door-to-door collection at 6 pm on Halloween evening.

Thanks to the generous outpouring of support for these events year after year, local food banks are able to provide meals for hundreds of families in need.