Hundreds of thousands of Christmas lights decorate the Canadian Pacific Railway’s Holiday Trains, which roll into the Greater Toronto Area, Hamilton and the Golden Horseshoe next week.

The 14-car trains include a boxcar stage featuring great musical talent and CP’s corporate contribution to local food banks. CP encourages each community, in turn, to donate food and funds — all of which stay in the community. CP presents a cheque at each stop to top off whatever the audience donates that day.

The trains support local food banks by raising the public’s awareness of the fight against hunger and collecting food that goes directly to your hungry neighbours. You can view the trains, if you bring a non-perishable food item as your admission fee, in Bowmanville, Oshawa, Hamilton and Toronto Monday, November 28 and Vaughan, Midhurst (Barrie), Cambridge and Ayr Tuesday, November 29.

CP invites local food banks along the trains’ 150 stops in six provinces and eight of the United States to participate by collecting food and cash donations. The Holiday Trains have helped raise $10.6 million and 1.4 million kilograms (3.3 million pounds) of food for North American food banks across Canada since 1999 and across the United States since 2001. Everything raised in each community stays in that community, and CP also makes its own donations at each stop. Generous North Americans have visited the trains and donated as much as $750,000 in cash donations each year.

CP also works with Food Banks Canada, which has shared more than 15 million pounds of food with CP’s donation of $1.2 million worth of transportation over the last five years. It also supports Meal Exchange, whose youth-driven registered charity work has achieved a more secure and sustainable food system on campuses and with communities across Canada.

With heart disease becoming one of the most rapidly growing health challenges in North America, CP has also dedicated millions of dollars towards supporting research and promoting awareness around this issue with its CP has Heart program.

It’s asking all 150 food banks that it partners with at Holiday Train events to commit 10 per cent or more of its monetary contribution to healthy food initiatives or purchases.

It’s also asking those who attend a Holiday Train event in their community to bring a healthy non-perishable food donation. Its goal is to have 20,000 people across North America take this online challenge and show their support.

Since 1999, the Holiday Trains have covered about 100,000 miles (160,000 kilometres), and entertained hundreds of thousands of supporters. It takes 30 “CP elves” 100 days to completely transform and decorate the Holiday Trains before they start their journey across North America.

The events in Bowmanville and Hamilton also result in local transit detours for these routes:

• Durham Region Transit — 502 North Bowmanville; and
• Hamilton Street Railway — 5 Delaware.