An annual drive brought in thousands of pounds of food for the local food banks.
To pull off this year's Cram a Cruiser event, Timmins Police and South Porcupine OPP auxiliary members and Northern College Police Foundations students teamed up for the one-day food drive. Over 6,600 pounds of food and $4,300 in cash donations were collected.
The volunteers were set up at seven grocery store locations to collect the donations. Richards Moving and Budget Rental helped move the donations.
The items collected were donated to the Timmins Food Bank, South Porcupine Food Bank, First Baptist Church, Project LOVE and the Salvation Army.
In the six years the event has been running, over 36,000 pounds of food and $27,540 in cash have been collected.
"This event has been very successful and the efforts made by both auxiliary groups are great to see. Originally it was to be one food drive back in 2017, however, the dedicated teams by both Ontario Provincial Police (auxiliary) South Porcupine and the Timmins Police (auxiliary) has kept it as an annual event. The grocery stores are happy with the food bank drives and support it. The food banks benefit from the initiatives and are very grateful," reads a synopsis of the event.
"Due to the size of this event, we needed to increase our volunteer base, Northern College Police Foundations students seemed like the perfect fit. It is greatly appreciated, the police foundations members have been a very dedicated group and we could not successfully complete each event without them, thank you."
