Students from Churchill, Chelmsford, MacLeod and Valleyview Public Schools helped kick off the Edgar Burton Christmas Food Drive and Kids Helping Kids campaign at the New Sudbury Centre on Nov. 15.
Through the campaign and thanks to the generosity of local businesses, schools, organizations and residents, the Sudbury Food Bank is able to feed about 11,000 clients a month, half of which are children.
"No one can feed everyone, but everyone can feed someone," Sudbury Food Bank president Mellaney Dahl said.
"It's everyone working together that makes this possible."
Edgar Burton, a Vale employee and member of the United Steelworkers Local 6500, started the annual food drive more than 30 years ago when his daughter asked him if they could start collecting food for people in need. Since then, the campaign has grown to include hundreds of businesses and dozens of local schools, which have collected more than 1,000 tons of food for the Sudbury Food Bank since its inception.
Before his passing in 2010, Edgar Burton launched the Kids Helping Kids campaign to teach school children the importance of giving back.
This is the eleventh year that Rainbow Schools have helped to collect food and cash for the food bank with the Kids Helping Kids campaign.
"A quarter of the food that we collect each year comes from the kids in our Rainbow Schools," MacLeod Public School principal Kerri Monaghan said.
"Edgar's vision was that we would teach our students the importance of taking care of each other through this food drive and he has accomplished this in so many ways."
The Edgar Burton Christmas Food Drive runs from Nov. 14 to Dec. 13. Reserve troops from the Canadian Armed Forces 2nd Battalion Irish Regiment will be picking up donations from participating businesses and schools Dec. 16 to 18.
Want to help? Learn more about the Edgar Burton Christmas Food Drive and Kids Helping Kids campaign at sudburyfoodbank.ca/edgarburton2019 or phone 705-682-8200.
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