TORONTO - ECC's new civic engagement initiative made its debut at the first annual Daily Bread 24 Hour Food Sort last Saturday. Descending swiftly on the Daily Bread Food Bank's facility in south Etobicoke, ECC members showed the right stuff by sorting, boxing and labelling food items in a competition with four other determined teams.

In an astounding 90 minutes, this East Coast Army secured and sorted 4 full cages of food - that's 136 crates of pasta, canned goods, baby formula and cereal - and raised $500 worth of donations. Over 40 teams registered for this event.

The East Coast Army is the tag name for ECC's civic engagement program. Members participate in community volunteer opportunities in the Greater Toronto Area. In this way, ECC members can meet new friends while contributing to the community and showing Toronto what Atlantic Canadians are made of.

Founded in 1983, the Daily Bread Food Bank currently serves over 900,000 hungry people a year. In addition, the Daily Bread Food Bank acts as the nexus of warehousing, storage and shipment of food for all of Canada for the Canadian Association of Food Banks. Roughly one-tenth of all foodstuffs processed within their Toronto facility from industry donations are sent to food banks and agencies in the Atlantic provinces.