Students unload trucks, and weigh the food donations for the Une canne ça dépanne food drive on Wednesday night, October 7. 
Yves Lafrenière hypes up the students at the food bank during the annual Une canne ça dépanne food collection. 
West Nipissing Food Bank volunteers do an initial sorting of the food as it comes in on Wednesday night. The work of sorting and storing everything goes on the next day. 
Over 500 students, teachers, and more gathered for a rally in the Franco-Cité gym before the human chain got underway. Here, they had a prayer, announced the donation totals, and held a minute of silence for teacher Tony Bourque, who passed away the week before the food drive. 
In keeping with a tradition from the early days of the Une canne ça dépanne food drive, around 500 students passed food from hand to hand as part of a human chain, symbolically bringing food to those in need.
Thanksgiving tradition still going strong after 26 years
Christian Gammon-Roy
Tribune
Franco-Cité’s annual Thanksgiving food drive, titled Une canne ça dépanne, continues to beat previous records even in its 26th year. The project, which was started by teacher Yves Lafrenière, has become local tradition over the years, and for the West Nipissing Food Bank, it is a lifeline. Lafrenière continues to spearhead the drive, bringing just as much energy now as he did 26 years ago. This year’s drive beat last year’s collection of roughly 22,000 lbs of food, more than doubled the cash donations of $2,100 and seems to have been the most well-attended event as well. Announced during a follow-up rally at the school on Thursday, October 8, results show 23,700 lbs of food were collected, along with $4,645 in cash.
“We still have energy, the kids are still in it, we were able to reach them with this project. People get into it, they get on board, they love this and they want to participate. That’s why we don’t have any absences,” describes Lafrenière during Thursday’s ‘human-chain’ portion of the project.
For the unfamiliar, the food drive began 26 years ago when the food bank was located in the basement of Our Lady of Sorrows church on John Street, just a few blocks away from the high school. Back then, the food was collected and brought to the school, then on the following day, students would form a human chain from the school all the way to the church, passing the items along from hand to hand. This way, everyone got to have a hand in physically handing over the food, making their individual contribution as part of a whole more palpable.
