This year's food drive is getting help from drones.

With the Cochrane area gaining more and more residents, Jackie Shier, Helping Hands Society, Executive Director, says thanks to grant monies they have been able to rent enough drones to cover the collection of food.

"We are needing more and more volunteers to cover the Cochrane area because Cochrane keeps growing and we're going to use these drones to help pick up in the outlying areas. We are still looking for volunteers, but we're hoping to cut down on the volunteer hours needed."

The food drive normally requires 400-500 people to help collect donations and Shier feels using drones could save a ton of time. With mega merchant Amazon delivering by drone, Jackie thought Cochrane could be the perfect place to pilot the idea because the air space is less busy.

Besides keeping your eye on the sky on April 29, you will want to leave your donation in a more open area.

"We are asking residents to leave their donations out on their sidewalks to make it a little easier for the drones to pick up so they don't have to go under the porch to access the bags."

Shier adds they are still needing volunteers. If you are interested in helping out the food drive by piloting a drone the morning of the 29th, you can email her at drone@helpinghandscochrane.ca