Edmonton Food Bank teams up with ETS for 25th annual Stuff A Bus Campaign

The first of more than 15 ETS buses was filled with donations for the Edmonton Food Bank on Monday.

EDMONTON -- More than two dozen students jumped off an ETS bus Monday morning with bags of donated food to fill up the Edmonton Food Bank's shelves.

The students from Brightview School helped kick off the 2019 Stuff A Bus campaign.

This year, Edmonton Transit Service and Edmonton Food Bank have set a goal of raising 370,000 kilograms of food and $2 million during this year's festive campaign.

"Demand at the food bank was high but consistent all year long until October came along, and we can't really explain why there was all of a sudden a higher need," said Carly Kincaid Williams, special events and communication coordinator for Edmonton Food Bank. "It's going to be a tough year, and over the winter, more people are going to need it."

She added: "And because of that need, more people are going to need to donate food, more people are going to need to give funds, and we need to be there for them."

Kincaid Williams also said the food bank typically sees 20,000 people in the month of November, but it had already surpassed that number as of last Friday.

This year, ETS will have more than 15 buses collecting food for the Food Bank warehouse from Save-On-Foods locations around the city, in addition to a decorated train car it is hoping to stuff at Southgate Mall.

Additionally, several peace officer cruisers will be partcipating in Stuff a Cruiser events at select Save-on-Food locations.

"For us, we are super exited about it being the 25th year. We are hoping its going to be our biggest year yet. Twenty-five years is nothing to be short of happy about and proud about," said Eddie Robar, ETS branch manager.

"It's one of those events in transit that people love to support. Being out there, being able to physically give back every day is something that people in Edmonton have been fully in support of, and our employees are no different."