Stuff-A-Bus food drive takes place across Calgary

One of Calgary's largest single-day food drives got underway Saturday at Co-op stores around the city.

Transit buses will be parked outside the stores to take donations for the Calgary Food Bank as part of the 21st annual Stuff-A-Bus event.

Last year the event collected roughly 26,000 kilograms of food and $73,000 in funds for the Calgary Food Bank.

Bus operators and volunteers will be on site to help fill the buses to the rooftops with food donations, and the Calgary Food Bank has also released a wish list of most-needed items for its emergency food hampers.

Over the course of 2011-2012, more than 130,000 Calgarians received food from the Calgary Food Bank's emergency food hamper program, and 35 per cent of households requested a food hamper have at least one employed person.

Eighty-one per cent of clients visit the Calgary Food Bank no more than three times a year; 40 per cent visited only once.

To date, the Stuff-A-Bus event has raised more than $1 million in monetary donations for the Calgary Food Bank.