The Assiniboia Farm Credit Canada office held its Drive Away Hunger campaign on the week of October 9. The office staff visited schools in Assiniboia and surrounding communities to collect food bags. All the donated food has been given to the local Salvation Army Food Bank meaning that food collected locally will be distributed as needed in Assiniboia and area.
At the Coronach School, the FCC staff collected 946.2 lbs. of food. The Westmoreland Coal-Poplar River Mine matched the pounds of food raised by the Coronach School with a cash donation. They picked up 266 lbs. of food at Glentworth School and 571 lbs. of food at the Lafleche School. At Gravelbourg School, the FCC staff collected 150 lbs. of food and at Mossbank School, they picked up 213.5 lbs. of food.
In Assiniboia on October 12, the FCC office staff was assisted by three players from the Southern Junior B Rebels, Phillip Decelle, Austin Neiszner and Randy Stowe, who helped collect and unload the food bags. At Assiniboia Elementary School, they collected 569 lbs. of food bags, and at the 7th Avenue School they picked up 805 lbs. of food. They also made a stop at E. Bourassa which had collected 237 lbs. of food. A total of 3,769.2 lbs. of food plus cash donations of $3,383.20 was raised in Assiniboia. This was the equivalent of 13,918.8 meals. They also received monetary donations which came from Lewans & Ford, PMP Powerline Construction, the RM of Willow Bunch, the Town of Willow Bunch and the Westmoreland Coal-Poplar River Mine.
This is the 14th year for the FCC Drive Away Hunger campaign. The campaign collected over 6.7 million meals for Canadian food banks in 2016 and 33 million meals over the past 13 years. Over 860,000 people across Canada rely on food banks every month and 36 per cent of them are children. This year, the FCC, along with its customers and partners across Canada, have united to provide five million meals through FCC Drive Away Hunger. This year, FCC will also be contributing a total of $100,000 in support of school food programs. FCC offices across Canada will be selecting 100 schools to receive $1,000 each to support their food programs.
Drive Away Hunger began in 2004 when an FCC employee, Dale Snider, drove an open-cab tractor through parts of Ontario for eight days, providing almost 60,000 meals through collected food along the way. Today, FCC Drive Away Hunger is a national campaign with tractor tours held across Canada in October to mark World Food Day on October 16. This flagship community investment program raises awareness about hunger, malnutrition and poverty. Serving the agriculture sector, the FCC is in a unique position to bring together the agriculture community to share the food it produces with those who need it most.
