The Tim Hortons in 100 Mile House donated $4,200 to the 100 Mile House Food Bank.
The funds were raised from Sept. 17 to 23 through the company’s smile cookie campaign.
Owner Steve MacPhail said stores throughout Canada and the US participate in the fundraiser, but each team gets to choose its charity.
“We’ve been running this program for years and the support is always unbelievable. Anything that this community rallies behind is unbelievable,” he said. “It’s great to be a part of.”
MacPhail said the food bank is an important charity to support, especially heading into the holiday season.
The company has been donating to the food bank for nine or ten years now, prior to that, proceeds went to the South Cariboo Health Foundation.
“When it came to the time to pick a charity it was actually the health foundation that guided us in this direction and I couldn’t agree more, you know, it just is a natural fit and it’s worked great ever since.”
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MacPhail praised his employees’ enthusiasm for the campaign and said they have a lot of fun with the smile cookies.
“We’ve got a lot of long-term employees that have been with us for many years and they embrace this program as well, you know.”
He said it’s just a nice feeling to be able to give back to the community and support those in need.
Assistant manager Sadie Lawrence, who’s celebrating her 10th year at the company, said smile cookies are a great opportunity for residents to help people in need right in their own community.
The campaign is so popular, she said people anticipate the arrival of the cookies.
“Last week, before it even started, we were getting people asking for (smile) cookies.”
The store had already sold approximately 3,000 smile cookies by the morning of Thursday, Sept. 20.
Bob Hicks, executive director of the food bank, said smile cookies is always a successful fundraiser for them and the support is very much needed.
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“Believe it or not, we have quite a few people in 100 Mile and area that need the food bank otherwise they would starve.”
Hicks said the cost to keep this essential resource alive are quite high and they appreciate all the contributions the food bank gets.
Those who depend on the food bank, he said, are also grateful for the help. “It really helps them an awful lot.”
The food bank recently received a $35,000 donation from the Salvation army out of its remaining wildfire funds, according to Hicks.
He said they plan to give $15,000 to Mile 108 Elementary and Lac la Hache Elementary to support their meal programs.
Hicks also serves on the board of directors for Food Banks B.C. and said child hunger comes up frequently in their meetings.
“Too many of the kids go to school not fed.”
The food bank has also helped 100 Mile Elementary, Horse Lake Elementary, Forest Grove Elementary and the Eliza Archie Memorial School through its Perishable Food Recovery Program and other various donations over the years.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints recently brought 1,044 lbs of non-perishable food donations to the food bank. The food donations were gathered from residents of 100 Mile and surrounding communities.
beth.audet@100milefreepress.net
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