The CPKC Holiday Train came to Lethbridge on Dec. 13, 2025, raising thousands of dollars in donations for the Lethbridge Food Bank. (Photo: Austin's Photographic Arts)

By David Opinko

Lethbridge Food Bank received ‘incredible’ amount of donations at CPKC Holiday Train

Dec 19, 2025 | 10:27 AM

As Canada’s most festive train rolled into town, the community showed up in a big way.

The CPKC Holiday Train, alongside the Barenaked Ladies, not only came to show off the bright lights and live music, but also to help out a good cause.

They were collecting donations for local food banks across the country with each stop, and in this case, benefitted the Lethbridge Food Bank.

Emily Beilby, executive administrator with the Lethbridge Food Bank, says people donated an incredible amount of food and money.

Those in attendance contributed just under 3,000 pounds of food and around $1,100 in cash.

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CPKC Rail also gave $8,000.

The combined value of the donations was around $20,000.

“If you saw our warehouse now, you would be quite shocked. We are really well set up for the new year,” says Beilby.

“Obviously, we’re in the middle of the Christmas hamper rollout, so that’s been really busy and all of our families have everything they need this Christmas.”

The Lethbridge Food Bank is preparing to hand out around 1,000 Christmas hampers this year.

They are similar to the normal food hampers, but with some “added extras” for the holiday season.

Each hamper includes either a ham, a chicken, or a turkey, as well as other items like stuffing, scalloped potatoes, cranberry sauce, pickles, margarine, and milk.

Although the injection of donations from the Holiday Train has been a great help, Beilby says they always need more.

Some of the most commonly-needed items are canned meat and fish, pasta, pasta sauce, peanut butter, and canned vegetables and fruit.

Cash donations, however, can actually go farther than food donations. Food banks buy in bulk and are sometimes offered discounted rates at grocery stores, meaning they can often get a better deal.

Food Banks Canada reports that there has been an average of over 2.1 million monthly visits to food banks across the country so far this year, which has doubled over the last six years. It is also an increase of 5.2 per cent from 2024.