Eric Ruttle and Lauren Meister braved the first day of real fall weather for 91.5 CochraneNow's Fall Food Drive. 

And it was so worth it!

We teamed up with Cochrane Toyota and Save-On-Foods and collected donations for the Cochrane Activettes food bank. 

We parked a Cochrane Toyota Tundra in front of Save-On-Foods and after broadcasting live for eight hours, we are pleased to say we filled the box of the truck to the brim.

On top of all of the food bank donations, we also received over $400 cash to go to the food bank. 

President of the Cochrane Activettes Jan Tracy says the demand at the food bank is always on the rise. 

"Year over year we see a basic increase of about 10 per cent. That's going to go a little bit sideways this year because we cut back the hampers for awhile to make sure we had enough food to satisfy everybody and now we've increased them again. The Cochrane community has been so generous to us both financially and with food."

With CERB wrapping up, Tracy says they're bracing for higher numbers. 

"We do generally in past years, see an increase in September and October when everybody goes back to school. So, we always see an increase, so it's hard to judge whether it's been excessive this year or not. But we do expect that as money from government sources dwindles, there's going to be an increase in demand."

Even though their inventory is good right now, Tracy says there are concerns as we head closer to the holiday season. 

"We are concerned for Christmas. We have our big Share Your Christmas program. The community has been very, very generous so far and we have good reserves but if things keep going the way they are, we are concerned that perhaps there will be a decrease in people being able to donate to us." 

Last month, members from the Cochrane Lions Club were busy driving a bucking chute throughout town collecting donations for the food bank. 

They also accepted monetary donations.

Keith Garner of the Cochrane Lions Club was on hand on Friday to donate $4265 to the Cochrane Activettes from their fundraising initative. 

chequeMarcia Gilbertson from the Activettes accepts a $4265 cheque from Cochrane Lions Club member Keith Garner