New Brunswick hockey team gives back to local food banks

Players from a peewee hockey team in the Florenceville, N.B., area had a busy Saturday morning. The 17 young players packed 3,000 pounds of potatoes before they laced up their skates.

The potatoes were donated by the McCain Potato Processing Technology Centre. The vegetables would have been destroyed or turned into feed but instead, they'll go to local food banks.

"There's a lot of people out there who come home and they don't get to have a nice hot meals, so donating all this will give them some food," said 11-year-old Nicholas Brennan.

Along with helping provide food banks with potatoes, it was also a team-building exercise. Some packed the potatoes, while others ziptied the tops of the bags.

"I ziptied," said Brennan, "My thumbs were hurting after a little bit but it was fun."

In time for Thanksgiving

The group's goal was to get the potatoes out to the food banks in time to be distributed for Thanksgiving.

The potatoes were taken out of the ground earlier in the week, so the team got right to it.

"It's good for the kids to work together as a team to get through the challenge of bagging 3,000 pounds of potatoes," said team manager Jeff Rector.

"These kids are privileged and get a chance to play hockey. But, by doing something like this, they're working together as that team, giving back, to know that there's a lot of people in Carleton County and Victoria County that take advantage of food banks."