Sudbury radio station’s Camping for Cans sees 60,000 pounds of food head to the food bank

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Sudbury's Pure Country's Camping for Cans a huge success for food bank

Campebell's donates more than 17,000 items to the Sudbury Food Bank

Big donation made for Camping for Cans

Sudbury Food Bank executive director speaks about the needs of the community

Pure Country's Camping for Cans is back

Camping for Cans returns to New Sudbury Centre

Pure Country 91.7 wrapped up its third annual Camping for Cans food drive on Friday.

The event again was a huge success for the Sudbury Food Bank with about 60,000 pounds of food collected when factoring in monetary and all of non-perishable donations including with a massive tractor-trailer load – 42 pallets and more than 17,000 items – from Campbell Company of Canada.

“That number will likely rise, according to the food bank,” said Pure Country 91.7 program director and on-air host Bryan ‘Coop’ Cooper in an email to CTV News.

Coop called the event a “big success.”

Campbell’s donation this time around by far exceeds last year’s donation of 28 pallets.

The radio station also thanked Maritime Ontario Trucking for delivering the generous donation to the local food bank in a social media post.

Camping for Cans began three years ago with a simple idea – with the community struggling coming out of the pandemic and food bank usage on the rise the radio station set the goal of filling a tent with non-perishable food.

The radio personalities told CTV News that the goal is now to ensure that no one in Greater Sudbury has to go hungry.

The broadcast team at the New Sudbury Centre on March 14 was able to fill their tent during their 10-hour live event – thanks to the generosity of listeners and the community.

“When all was said & done, we filled a tent, (and) thousands of dollars were collected,” said Pure Country.

“Thank you Sudbury! You’ve come through again.”

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