The Friends in Need Food Bank and Wesbrooke seniors home are gearing up to break a Guinness world record for the most food collected in one day.
Spearheaded by Pitt Meadows Coun. Gwen O’Connell, who works at Wesbrooke, the plan is to gather more than 600,000 pounds of food.
“We will need to collect about 50 pounds of food per person in Pitt Meadows,” said O’Connell. “We’re going to break, break, break the record.”
O’Connell has already registered with Guinness World Records and has a roster of 600 people committed to helping her collect food.
“What I am hoping for this event is that we have some neighbourhood heroes come forward,” she explains.
These people will collect food in their neighbourhood and bring it to Wesbrooke, where it will be loaded into trucks organized by Friends in Need.
“It would be awesome to get local realtors, soccer clubs, scouts, girl guides and PACs from the local schools,” O’Connell added.
The record for the largest food drive in 24 hours was set by the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics Food Drive, which collected 254,493 kilograms (559,885 pounds) of food in Durham in March 2011.
The food was collected over a 18-hour period.
Last year, the Calgary Inter-Faith Food Bank, which broke the record in 2008, attempted to win it back by collecting 560,000 pounds of food.
The drive unfortunately fell short, but still collected 520,000 pounds of food.
Pitt Meadows will attempt to break North Carolina’s record on April 12.
Get info.
The Wesbrooke (12000 – 190 Street, Pitt Meadows), has organized two information sessions for Feb. 26 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
You can also email goconnell@thewesbrooke.com for more information or visit “Friends in Need Food Drive at The Wesbrooke” on Facebook.