‘Everyone in the community knows that we care’: North Bay high schools collect over 15,000 lbs of food for city’s food bank

In the spirit of giving and thanksgiving, three North Bay high schools have come together to go door-to-door to collect food donations for the city's food bank.

It's an annual school tradition among the city's high schools and one school still has to go out and canvass its neighborhood.

“Everyone in the community knows that we care and that we want to make sure everyone else is doing well,” Carleigh Roy, a grade 10 student at West Ferris Secondary School, told CTV News.
Students from West Ferris Secondary School sorting food donations after their door-to-door canvasing. (Photo courtesy of West Ferris Secondary School)The Thanksgiving food drive was held Tuesday and Wednesday evening where students from West Ferris, St. Joseph-Scollard Hall Catholic Secondary School and École Secondaire Catholique Algonquin collected a combined total of over 15,000 lbs in food donations.Students from West Ferris Secondary School out canvasing for food donations on Oct. 5/22. (Photo courtesy of West Ferris Secondary School)West Ferris alone collected 10,143 lbs, St. Joseph-Scollard Hall gathered 2,350 lbs and École Secondaire Catholique Algonquin was able to collect 3,001 lbs at the door. That is a total of 15,494 lbs of food altogether.North Bay students from three local high schools collected over 15,000 lbs in food donations. (Eric Taschner/CTV News Northern Ontario)“It's a weight off our shoulders. We know what we need to sustain our monthly hamper program,” said Debbie Marson, executive director of the North Bay Food Bank.

This tradition has been running for 15 years as a friendly competition between the area schools.

“We had a big group of guys. There were seven of us on one street,” said Wesley Buell, another grade 10 student at West Ferris.

“Some people even filled up our whole crates. So yeah, that was very fun.”A group of West Ferris Secondary School students showing how much food they collected canvasing for food donations on Oct. 5/22. (Photo courtesy of West Ferris Secondary School)Erin Robertson, a student success teacher at West Ferris, credits the student body participation but also the collaboration between all three schools.

“We had awesome student uptake and staff uptake and everybody in the community got behind this,” she said.

“It's been a great cooperation between all of the city schools.”

The food bank will use the donations for its food hamper program, which consists of non-perishable food items, pasta, soup and other products.

“We're looking at upwards of 400 hampers a month that go out,” explained Marson.

“When we see new people or people we haven't seen before, the numbers keep going.”

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Chippewa Secondary School had to postpone its canvass and will go door-to-door at a later date.

If your home was missed, you can still make a donation directly through the food bank.

More information on the food bank’s programs and upcoming events can be found on their Facebook page.