Holiday Train brings plenty of gifts for the Moose Jaw & District Food Bank

The CP Holiday Train was greeted by a larger-than-normal crowd of Moose Javians when it rolled into the city on Dec. 17

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1 / 1 The crowd was suitably excited to see those bright colourful lights pulling into the train yard, as the CP Holiday Train arrived in Moose Jaw.

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The CP Holiday Train rolled into Moose Jaw with as many brightly coloured lights as could be expected from a train that’s been travelling the country delivering the spirit of holiday giving.

The impressive crowd that gathered in the cold December air greeted the festive train with a rousing swell of applause, as the train brought with it not only a fun tradition but also a huge donation for the Moose Jaw & District Food Bank.

Upon arrival, Canadian Pacific happily presented the food bank with a cheque for $10,000, alongside the hefty donation of food items collected from around the community.

Terri Smith, operations manager at the food bank, thanked both CP Rail and the Moose Jaw Co-op for their support after receiving the cheque, before adding another thank you to the crowd.

“I would especially like to thank all of you because without all of you our doors would not be open. It’s been a really hard couple of years but I’m really proud to be a part of a community that will help each other when we’re down, thank you so much,” said Smith.

This year, over 1,300 bags of food equalling over 9,000 pounds were collected during the week prior to the train’s arrival, supported through a partnership with the Moose Jaw Co-op. That total is nearly double what was collected last year through the campaign.

“We are just absolutely thrilled with what came in, we are going to be able to keep our hampers nice and filled for a long time to come. I’m just so grateful for the people of Moose Jaw, they continue to give to our food bank year after year and they never let us down,” said Deann Little, development manager at the food bank, who was braving the cold to continue collecting donations from the crowd.

This is the 21st year that the CP Holiday Train has toured the country for the charity program, which has collected over 4.5 million pounds of food that has stayed in all of the communities on the train’s route.

“I just want to say thank you to the businesses and citizens of Moose Jaw,” said CP representative Gabrielle Belanger. “Keep it up. It’s fantastic and next year we can only go higher!”