The parking lot of Seaman Stadium was alive with cars on Saturday, when the Okotoks Dawgs held a food drive in benefit of the Okotoks Food Bank Association.

This latest event was conducted in a similar manner to another food drive held in March, wherein residents remained in their vehicles as volunteers unloaded donations.

Head Coach with the Dawgs Academy Jeff Duda says extra care was taken to ensure proper sanitary measures were implemented.

"All the volunteers had masks and gloves on and we also had sanitary wipes, where between the loading of each vehicle, we'd sanitize accordingly and try to maximize the distance between us when unloading the vehicles as best as we could. No direct contact with any of the people that dropped it off, so I think we did a very good job of following the parameters set forth Alberta Health Services, so I think it went very well all around."

Six coaches and two West Direct employees took part in the collection and subsequent transportation of the donated food, which was made convenient by the food bank's new location being only a very short distance from the stadium.

The food is now being stored for 72 hours before being circulated as an extra sanitary precaution.

McLean says the success both food drives goes to show that residents are still willing to go that extra mile to give.

"If an organization takes it in a serious manner and fully understands that these safety protocols must be followed, then yes, it can be done and it can be done safely and successfully. I'm very impressed with both attempts, the one on March and now the one in May, they were done very professionally."

An estimated 4000lbs of food was collected, as well at $3170 in donations, $1000 of which was donated by the Dawgs themselves.

Duda says there's no shortage of people to thank.

"Thank you to everyone involved, from West Direct, the volunteers, the staff, and obviously the community, Definitely hard times for a lot of people right now across the country, and we're just very thankful and couldn't be more proud to be a part of this community and to give back."

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

 

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