This year's Community Food Drive for the Okotoks Food Bank was a success.

Every year, volunteers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) distribute bags for locals to leave food donations in, and then a few days later, volunteers make their way back through town to pick them up.

The Okotoks Food Bank has seen a sizeable increase in usage in the past year, making it hard to keep their shelves stocked.

They were hoping to see at least 30,000 pounds of food donated.

Executive Director Pamela McLean says that goal was quickly surpassed.

"We hit the 30,000 at about 1 o'clock on that Saturday, then we always allow the week following for straggler bags to come in. By the end of Saturday, it was 33,547, and then with the stragglers bags is beautifully totalled up to 34,000."

They also collected at least $1,500 in monetary donations.

At this point, says McLean, food bank and LDS volunteers have the event down to a science.

"This year we thought we really found that sweet spot. We changed the traffic flow a little bit here at the food bank, Sunbelt Rentals, bless their hearts, they lent us a second forklift for free, so we were able to have one forklift outside, one forklift inside."

Two local organizations went the extra mile to make sure that the 30,000-pound goal was hit.

"There were two groups who went above and beyond, the Rotary Club and the Optimist Club. They decided they were going to do a joint effort and really try to push the food donation number to the number that we needed. Those two organizations set up shop down at the local Sobeys. They had all kinds of fun things going on, face painting for the kids, I believe there was live music. Through their joint efforts, they raised well over 1000 pounds and several hundreds of dollars."

For more information on the Okotoks Food Bank, click here.

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