The Tim Horton’s Smile Cookie Campaign that ran from Oct. 16 until Oct. 22,raised over $7000 which was donated to the Chestermere Food Bank on Nov. 12.
“We were super excited, we didn’t realize how many cookies would sell,” said Chestermere Food Bank President Laurie Dunn.
“Andrew said it should be five or six thousand, and to beat it by that much was incredible,” she said.
All of the funds raised through the Tim Horton’s Smile Cookie Campaign will be allocated for the purchase and maintenance of a commercial-grade vehicle for the food bank.
“We are looking for something that’s more commercial than the vehicle that we have, we don’t know cost-wise what’s that’s going to look like yet,” Dunn said.
The early 2000’s minivan that food bank volunteers are currently using does not meet the safety standards that are required by Occupational Health and Safety.
“Our utmost goal is to keep our volunteers safe while they are performing duties for the food bank,” Dunn said.
“The vehicle is old, and it doesn’t have proper safety equipment when you’re transporting things like food,” she said.
Adding, “There needs to be a barrier between the driver and whatever is being transported. We’re picking up food, transporting food, and delivering food, and we need to make sure we have the appropriate safety equipment.”
The Tim Horton’s Smile Cookie Campaign originated over 20 years ago in Hamilton Ont., with the proceeds going to the Children’s Hospital.
Over the last two decades, additional charities and organizations have been added to the campaign.
This year, 9.8 million cookies were sold, which broke last year’s record of 7.8 million cookies sold that supported over 550 charities in Canada.
Tim Horton’s increased the chocolate chip cookie inventory by a million more cookies to accommodate the demand during the Smile Cookie Campaign. However, they sold two million more cookies.
“We were in a panic session, thinking of decorating oatmeal cookies because all of the warehouses were out of the chocolate chip,” said the Owner of theChestermere Tim Horton’s, Andrew Marriott.
“Other stores had to do oatmeal, but we had a few extras,” he added.
This year, the Chestermere Tim Horton’s proceeds raised from the Smile Cookie Campaign increased by $1,500.
“We are extremely proud to divert funds raised by the smile cookie to local Chestermere charities going forward,” Marriott said.
Marriott worked closely with the Office Coordinator of Community Services with the City of Chestermere Marla Polachek to determine where the funds raised should be allocated within the community.
“The Chestermere Food Bank has been a growing charity in Chestermere for many years. With the economy as of late, they are seeing demand increase, but also donations and required pick-ups have increased,” Marriott said.
On the morning of Oct. 16, Dun was hand decorating smile cookies.
“I was here at 9 a.m., and they were already out of smile cookies. They couldn’t bake them fast enough,” Dunn said.
She added, “Then, of course, you had to wait until they cooled a bit before you could decorate them, or the faces just slid right off.”
Looking back at the Tim Horton’s Smile Cookie Campaign, it’s difficult for Marriott to imagine decorating over 1000 cookies a day.
“I was very proud of my team and even more proud of our Chestermere community for rallying and purchasing these cookies, knowing that all funds would stay in Chestermere to help support those in need,” Marriott said.
“This say’s a lot about our community, and even with this economy our residents pulled through and made it a great donation to the Chestermere Food Bank,” he added.
Moving forward, Pratt’s Food Service will be providing the Chestermere Food Bank with food hampers.
Dunn also encourages anyone having a private event to support the Chestermere Food Bank to register the event on the website.
“We have a lot of people who do private things for us, we certainly appreciate that, and we want to remind people to register their events so we can help,” Dunn said.
Currently, the Chestermere Food Bank wish list includes jam, toilet paper, sugar, coffee, tea, 1-litre juice, pancake syrup.
For more information regarding the Chestermere Food Bank, please visit the website at http://chestermerefoodbank.ca/
