In the days leading up to Christmas, the food banks for the Salvation Army in Estevan are sure to be under more strain than usual. Luckily, the community has stepped up to help fill them. The latest helping of generosity came from Southeast College.

For the third year in a row, Southeast College encouraged their staff to bring in food to donate to the bank. For the third year in a row, the staff answered that call and then some, as they made an entire Christmas tree worth of boxed food donations. 

"We didn't weigh our results this year but we had a really excellent contribution level here at our Estevan campus," said Sheena Onrait, the college's marketing and communications manager. "We participated in the GFL box out hunger, and we had lots and lots of boxed items donated that we created into a Christmas tree and a Christmas train in our lobby."

"It looked excellent," she added. "We were so proud of what our staff came up with. We were a little unsure at the beginning of what we were going to build. Boy, our staff, they sure are creative. They decorated the tree with lights and everything."

GFL collected the donations and dropped them off at the food bank on the college's behalf. For Onrait personally, it was the second time she'd been part of a big food bank donation during the week as her son was part of the bantam AA Bruins donation to the bank on Sunday.

"I had never been inside the food bank before," she said. "It was incredible to see how much the people of Estevan have donated over the last little bit. It was absolutely stuffed full in there. It was a wonderful feeling to go in there and see how much people have contributed in the last few weeks."

The college also collected donations at their Weyburn and Moosimin campuses and have been doing those food drives every year as well.

"I really think our students and staff got on board with what we set out with the boxed items this year," said Onrait. "We had lots of variety and we were really, really happy with the way people participated. We look forward to doing this for many more years to come."