Sudbury radio station hosts second annual Camping for Cans event in support of local food bank

Pure Country Sudbury food bank fundraiser success Pure Country Sudbury morning show host Bryan Cooper on the success of the second annual Camping for Cans in support of the food bank.

Pure Country 91.7 has wrapped up its second annual ‘Camping for Cans’ food drive on Friday.

The event again was a huge success for the Sudbury Food Bank raising more than $9,000 in monetary donations online and on location during the 10-hour broadcast and filling a tent with food at the New Sudbury Centre – not to mention a Campbell's donated 30,000 pounds of food directly to the food bank in the name of the event.

“From 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., the Pure Country crew broadcasted live from the New Sudbury Centre, collecting non-perishable donations, as well as monetary donations for our Sudbury Food Bank,” said Pure Country 91.7 program director and on-air host Bryan ‘Coop’ Cooper in an email to CTV News.

“And yes, we blew last year’s numbers out of the water.”

Campbell Company of Canada came through in a huge way again this year, after donating eight pallets of food last year. For the second annual event, Campbell's donated 28 pallets of food.

“They (Campbell's) had the massive donation, 28 pallets, which basically turned into about 25,000 items that was donated from Campbell’s soup,” said Coop.

Coop said during the live broadcast that the crew also filled their tent – which was their goal.

“It is a beautiful, beautiful sight,” said Pure Country 91.7’s afternoon on-air host Matt Brown, during the live broadcast.

All week prior to the event, the shopping centre was collecting canned goods and other non-perishable food items at their customer service counter with participants having the chance to win a $250 gift card from the mall.

Some local politicians also stopped by with non-perishable donations.

Additionally, Daniel Xilon, the Sudbury Food Bank’s executive director, told the station that the $9,000 collected will allow the food bank to purchase $54,000 worth of product from their partners for the local food bank.

“It shows you how far they can stretch a dollar to get so much for our community,” said Brown.

“Those numbers are pretty darn insane… I am honestly speechless.”

About a third of the monetary donations came fairly early in the broadcast with the Greater Sudbury Police Service donating $1,000 and the annual Big Nickel Hockey Tournament in Sudbury giving back to the community with a $2,000 donation.

Further to the cause, the Lougheed Foundation matched the first $2,500 donated on Friday.

“Sudbury thank you once again for stepping up and supporting our Sudbury Food Bank,” said the radio station as the broadcast closed.

“Because of your generosity bellies will be filled and smiles will be had across the Nickel city.”

"They've come up with a wonderful idea like this which is not only a lot of fun. It’s been great talking to the people coming by and making donations. It's been a blast,” said Xilon.

“Stuff like this is always important to help us do what we need to do to feed the people who are hungry in our region."

“Pure Country Sudbury has once again proven our commitment to staying local & being in the community,” said Cooper.

To see more pictures from the event, visit the CTVNorthernOntario.ca photo gallery.

For more information on the Sudbury Food Bank and how to donate, visit their Facebook page.

– CTV News and Pure Country 91.7 are both owned by Bell Media