The Friends in Need Food Bank and Wesbrooke seniors home need a few volunteers to help Pitt Meadows 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.
O’Connell has recruited enough “neighbourhood heroes” to collect food, but more people are needed to pack boxes on April 12.
“We need to pack 18,500 banana boxes of 50 pounds each to beat the record,” O’Connell said at a council meeting Tuesday, adding she is thrilled with the community response.
“Everyone wants to see this happen.”
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 the record on April 12.
• To volunteer, call 604-460-7006 or email goconnell@thewesbrooke.com.