St. Peter High School has answered the bell yet again to provide food and cash for the Orléans-Cumberland food bank at what is traditionally a critical time of the year.

Except for a three-year stretch during the COVID pandemic between 2020 and 2023, the Canley Cup food drive has been an integral part of the St. Peter High School community for more than 25 years. It’s a time when the entire student body joins forces
to collect non-perishable food items and monetary donations for the food bank.

This year, the students managed to collect over 15,000 food items and more than $10,000.

Orléans Cumberland Community Resource Centre project manager Julie Perkins says the donations will help the OCCRC provide emergency food supplies to residents who need them over the summer and into the fall.

“It’s one of, if not our biggest, food drives of the year. It’s what allows to feed families for at least half the year if not three quarters of the year,” says Perkins. “We’re fortunate to have such a generous community and students who know the value of taking care of each other and helping each other out.”

The food bank serves 1,200 individuals a month, on average, including 38 new individ-uals who registered with the food bank last month.

While some people may think the food bank operates as a grocery store for people with a limited income, it actually only provides people with three days of emergency food supplies per month. The amount of food provided depends on whether it’s for a single individual, or a family, and the size of that family.

In order to continue to provide emergency food supplies for individuals and families in need, the food bank is largely dependent on food and monetary donations from the community raised through a combination of individual donations, events which collect donations on behalf of the food bank and events such as the St. Peter High School food drive held every spring and the Ottawa Fire Fighters food drive held every December.

St. Peter High School teacher Sheena Hyde has been co-ordinating the food drive for the past three years. She also volunteers at the food bank during the summer, which gives her first-hand insight into how important the food drive is and the people it benefits.

“I started volunteering during the pan-demic, so I do have a vested interest as well,” says Hyde.

The St. Peter food drive has developed into a friendly competition between classes to see which class can collect the most food items and raise the most money. This year’s winning class was Mr. Poirier’s Grade 8 class, which collected over 4,000 donations in cash donations and food items

“Our kids really have stepped up. We had so many classes above 200 donations and at least 10 classes over 1,000 donations,” says Hyde. “It’s been great.”.