N.B. teen collects 3,315 items for local food bank

A New Brunswick teenager has collected more than 3,000 items for his local food bank – 3,315 to be exact.

Gavin Stubbert, a Grade 8 student at St. Stephen Middle School, has continued a tradition of gathering large quantities of food and personal care items for the St. Stephen Food Bank/Volunteer Centre.

“I started out small,” said Gavin, who was first inspired a few years ago to begin his collection campaign when food bank executive director Emily Muir visited the school to drum up support for a student food drive.

“I didn’t have a goal, I didn’t really know what I was doing,” he said. “And for the past few years it has become bigger.”

Last year Gavin collected 1,185 items for the school’s food drive, surpassing his initial goal of 400 items.

This year he set a more ambitious target to gather 2,000 items, ultimately surpassing it once again by well over a thousand items.

“It started with a post on Facebook, and then it spread to me going out to local businesses, businesses reaching out to me, and community donations,” said Gavin.

He also wrote letters to local companies in a bid to get them involved, with a total of 21 businesses making contributions to the effort. Throughout the process, Gavin said he’s learned more about how the food bank needs donations that may not be the first items that come to mind.

“I didn’t know that diapers were a thing they needed, or things for babies or elders,” said Gavin, making note of a strong demand for baby wipes and meal replacement drinks for folks who can’t eat solid food.

He said it has also been an eye-opening experience over the past several years to see how demand at the food bank has steadily increased.

“Food goes really quick there,” he said.

Gavin gave credit to his younger sister Lydia Stubbert, who organizes an annual town cleanup in St. Stephen each Earth Day, for inspiring him to help the community out as well.

Altogether, St. Stephen Middle School students collected more than 7,000 items during this fall’s food drive.

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