On December 13, Daily Bread Food Bank’s production hall was humming. Volunteers scurried between tables sorting donated food, chatting about “getting their steps in” and “breaking a sweat.” One man in blue almost jogged as he pulled a trolley full of sorted food to the scale for weighing. Above the hubbub, occasionally the rip of a packing tape dispenser cracked through the air.
This was the CBC Make the Season Kind Bank Challenge, a longstanding tradition reignited last year for the first time since the pandemic. Volunteers from five banks — BMO, CIBC, RBC, Scotiabank and TD — squared off against one another to see who can sort the most donations and send off the most food to Torontonians facing hunger this holiday season.
Last year, the banks sorted an impressive 17,092 lbs of food. This year, they outshot that number by over 2,500 lbs, sorting 19,723 lbs in just two hours. That’s nearly one ton of food processed every 60 minutes.
“What a great job you did as one unit, as one team,” said Sam Cooke, VP of Development, Daily Bread Food Bank. As a pound of food is approximately one meal, “you helped us basically get 19,723 meals out into the community, so big, big, big round of applause to you.”
Of course, this was still a competition. One taken so seriously, in fact, that teams got dinged for mis-sorting items: Experienced Daily Bread volunteers were tasked with checking for any mistakes before each sorted box was sealed up, deducting 10 “pounds” from teams’ totals for anything misplaced.
The winning bank this year — for the second year in a row — was RBC! They prepped 5,036 lbs of food for distribution to those facing hunger in Toronto, over 1,000 lbs more than the runner-up team. They earned medals decorated with little plastic bell peppers, carrots and tomatoes.
Although it’s fun to win, really the Bank Challenge was all about fighting hunger. “We’re thrilled to be here today to support such an amazing cause with all of our fellow banks,” said Gayle Corcoran, RBC’s Senior Director, Social Impact. “We’re really happy to come together and support our community.”
Sorting this amount of food at this time of year was extremely impactful. Thanks to the generosity of the community, we often have large amounts of donated food that must first be processed in order to get out to those who need it. The nearly two tons of food that the banks packed will go to families facing hunger this holiday season.
On top of that, each bank donated an incredible $30,000, for a total of $150,000 supporting Daily Bread Food Bank’s emergency food services. Thank you so much for your kindness and hard work in the fight to end hunger in Toronto!
If you’d like to contribute to CBC’s Make the Season Kind campaign in support of food banks, please donate today.
