About 5,000 bags and boxes of non-perishable food items were collected along with nearly $2,500 in monetary donations during the 40th annual Irish Miracle.
The initiative, organized by staff at St. Patrick's High School, directly supports the St. Vincent de Paul Society. Volunteers went door-to-door on December 2 to collect donations.
Teacher Vanessa Borody said, "it was an incredible weekend!"
Most of the donated items were delivered to the food bank on Saturday and the remaining items were taken to the food bank on Tuesday. However, non-perishable items collected as part of classroom competitions have yet to be tallied.
Borody said the collection totals were comparable to last year, although it was tougher to gauge the exact total because the use of plastic bags has been phased out.
"In previous years we counted bags and we counted boxes as multiple bags," she said. "This year, because we used to get our plastic bags donated to us by grocery stores, and that obviously doesn't happen anymore, we had to purchase bags. So each group left with only 10 bags and a lot of people were over-stuffing their bags or they just had loose cans rolling around and they were carrying them in individually."
Borody said it was an interesting challenge to have. Luckily, some residents donated reusable bags that can be used next year.
The collection event saw another high turnout of students from St. Patrick's, but Borody said they were also approached by the Huron Lakers Basketball Club to have team members volunteer.
"We had upwards of seven groups of Lakers that went out to help in the community," she said.
"There were 320 canvassers and we always guesstimate about 100 more volunteers between the drivers, the sorters, [and] the people cooking the breakfast. So we would say there were probably about 420 to 430 people out helping us that day."
St. Patrick's High School will not host their traditional Cyclone Aid donation event in the spring due to challenges more families are facing with high food prices. As previously announced, the school will instead look at different ways of supporting the Inn of the Good Shepherd.