December has been a busy month with events supporting the Okotoks Food Bank.

And the generous response of the community has helped fill the shelves for several months ahead.

Okotoks Food Bank Executive Director Sheila Hughes says they received a cheque for $5,000.00 from CP Rail during the well-received CP Holiday Train stop here.

"On top of that, we received over $6,600.00 from the community and ATCO Pipelines so that was just amazing to us," Hughes says. "We were very, very surprised and very grateful for that, it was quite a successful event."

Hughes adds that over 2,500 pounds of food were also donated during the CP Holiday Train event.

The 18 Wheels of Christmas at Save-On Foods, the Christmas Food Bank Benefit Concert and the Charity Checkstop, as well as donation drives held at local schools, also added thousands of pounds of food to the food bank shelves.

Hughes says the response from the community has been overwhelming, especially this month, with donations continuing to come in.

"We're just surrounded by warmth and care and support this time of year," she says. "It's very touching, it's very heartwarming, it's very emotional to be honest, to receive all of this and know that neighbours are really taking care of neighbours here."

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