Packed!

The 3rd Annual Pack the Patrol Car for the Cold Lake food bank was held on Saturday in Cold Lake. RCMP, Military Police, Fish & Wildlife Officers and Peace Officers came together to collect donations for the food bank at Sobey’s and Lorraine’s No Frills.

Peace Officer, Robert Mercer explains he and RCMP member Dave Hart brought the idea from a town in Newfoundland where they both were from. Three years ago the pair got to talking and decided to bring the idea to the mainland. The public is encouraged to donate food to the drive and load it into patrol cars parked outside.

Almost a dozen patrol cars were packed to the roof with non-perishable food bank items that stay in the community to help those in need during the holiday season.

On top of the food donations, monetary donations were collected to benefit Cold Lake Victim Services, says Dave Zimmerman with Victim Services, “all the cash donations go to families and people that are in need at Christmas time. We get that information from the RCMP members or our own personal files, that people could use a little helping hand to make their Christmas just a little better.”

Zimmerman recalls a sad story from the year previous, “there was a family that actually had their Christmas turkey stolen, five days before Christmas. We were able to take the donation money and we were able to buy them a whole Christmas dinner and a few extra gifts.”

The Cold Lake Food Bank is anticipating helping over 250 families through their Christmas Hamper program. With an increase of usage of the food bank in recent times, the donations made Saturday during Pack the Patrol Car will go a long way to help.

“It’s been a wonderful response, we want to thank the community of Cold Lake for getting behind this project,” Zimmerman says without the partners and help of the community Pack the Patrol Car wouldn’t be such a success.