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The Okotoks Food Bank will receive a boost from Tim Hortons' current Holiday Smile Cookie Campaign. (Photo courtesy of the Okotoks Food Bank)
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The Okotoks Food Bank will receive a boost from Tim Hortons' current Holiday Smile Cookie Campaign. (Photo courtesy of the Okotoks Food Bank)
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A few Foothills food banks will be benefitting from this year's Tim Hortons Holiday Smile Cookie campaign.

Sales of smile cookies at Tim Hortons locations from Nov. 18-24 will be split between local charities and Tim Hortons Foundation Camps.

In Okotoks, those proceeds will go to the Okotoks Food Bank.

It comes at the perfect time, as the food bank is heading into the holiday season following a busy fall.

"It started really well with the fall food drive, but we have been running through that really fast. Faster than normal for sure," says the food bank's executive director, Bente Yanota.

Yanota says Tim's approached the food bank to see if they'd be interested, which was also a major help.

"As a charity, you do have to go out and look for money a lot of the time. So to have someone come to us and ask 'Would you like to be part of this campaign and receive some funds?' we're like 'Thank you, yes! That's very generous of you.'"

Much of the monetary donations to the Okotoks Food Bank around this time of year go toward the Christmas Food Hamper program, which usually sees around 230 hampers given out each year.

"I do shopping every week, so I buy a lot of the perishables, like the protein, dairy, fruit, and vegetables that go into the hampers," says Yanota.

Their Christmas hampers go out on December 21, and registrations are open until December 6.

Registration is also open for the food bank's Our Adopt a Family program.

Other Foothills food banks benefitting from this year's Holiday Smile Cookie campaign include the High River Salvation Army Food Bank, the Claresholm Food Bank, and Diamond Valley's Oilfields Food Bank.

A map of Tim Hortons locations that includes the charities they're supporting can be seen on the Tim Hortons website.