The holiday season is one of the busiest times for the Cochrane Activettes Food Bank. The Helping Hands Society of Cochrane and Area is holding a food drive this Saturday to help make sure no Cochranite goes hungry this year.

Volunteers will be going door-to-door throughout Fireside, River Heights, Rivercrest, Riversong, the Willows, Precedence, and Riveria starting at 10 a.m.

Residents are asked to set out non-perishable food on their front steps for volunteers to collect. If nothing is set out, expect a friendly knock from a volunteer looking for donations. 

Helping Hands Manager of food security programs, April Baird says that being prepared for the volunteers can really help, especially if the weather turns nasty. “It takes the volunteer a lot longer and it's a lot more work for all the additional door knocking that we have to do to say hello and let you know what we're doing and then to ask for non-perishable donations.”

“If Cochranites could just be prepared and have that stuff already sitting outside for volunteers to pick up then it'll go a lot smoother and of course during the snow that's how the volunteers are going to want it to go.”

The Cochrane Activettes have a list of the most in-demand items that include: 

  • Sides – such as instant mashed potatoes and SideKicks

  • Rice

  • Canned fruit

  • Chunky soup

  • Pasta sauce

  • Canned veggies

  • Kraft Dinner

  • Toilet paper


This is the second Helping Hands food drive this season, volunteers went through the Cochrane north communities in September.  “We did about nine pumpkin boxes full for the north food drive” explains Baird. “Typically, the south always smashes that out of the park. I think last year they were near 17 Pumpkin boxes.”

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