Students and staff at North Delta’s Delview Secondary collected an impressive 17,881 non-perishable food items last Thursday (Oct. 17) during the school’s annual Thanks 4 Giving food drive.
The one-night event (affectionately dubbed T4G for short) sees students, parents and staff come together to collect thousands of non-perishable food items, as well as recyclables and cash donations, in support of the Surrey Food Bank and Deltassist.
Now in its 32nd year, T4G was started by teachers Ron McNeill, Barb Woodford and Sandy Ferguson in 1992 under the name “Ten-in-One” (for 10,000 items collected in one night).
Over the past three decades, the drive has collected more than 460,000 non-perishable food items, becoming the school’s largest event of the year and a huge part of the culture for both staff and students.
The school set a new record last year, collecting 26,449 non-perishable food items to top the previous high-water mark of 26,411 set in 2017 for the event’s 25th anniversary.
For those who have never experienced T4G firsthand, the event has the atmosphere of a block party. Excited conversations overlap and intertwine with upbeat music blaring from the gym, while teachers, parents, kids, community leaders and volunteers all move about the school with purpose and passion, a smile on each and every face.
After an opening ceremony attended by McNeill and representatives from the school district, school board, city council, Deltassist and the Surrey Food Bank, teams of students will fan out across the community from 6 to 8:30 p.m., collecting donations door-to-door and bringing them back to the school, where they were counted, sorted and palletized for pick up.
Organizers had hoped to best that result this year, but the celebration in the school's gym was no less than usual Thursday night when the total was revealed.
Once monetary donations were added, the total "cash and cans" collected was 18,668.
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