Headline News

Orangeville Food Bank’s Coldest Night of the Year approaches $200,000 fundraising goal

March 5, 2026   ·   0 Comments

By Joshua Drakes, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The annual Coldest Night of the Year fundraiser, held by the Orangeville Food Bank, drew a festive, high-energy crowd on Saturday, Feb. 28, as residents, volunteers and local groups rallied to support food security in the community.

Carrie-Anne DeCaprio, the food bank’s donor engagement and outreach manager, said that the turnout was so large, it actually broke their counting systems.

“It was a fantastic turnout, the best night ever, we had 473 walkers registered, and over 115 volunteers here the day of, so just about 600 people that were here on hand for the Coldest Night of the Year on Saturday,” she said. “We will not have an accurate count of that, because we broke the system registration.”

“When people were coming in at that 4:30 registration time, that crunch time getting ready for the walk, the whole system just crashed, so we are working from the number counted before that,” DeCaprio added.

Despite chilly temperatures and worry over a deep freeze, the evening felt warm with community spirit.

A disk jockey from Orangeville-based company, Dufferin DJs, set the tone, the town crier delivered a themed poem to send off walkers, burn barrels dotted the grounds of the food bank, and a post‑walk celebration featured chilli, mac and cheese, and a dance party.

Volunteers worked as route marshals for two-kilometre and five-kilometre walking routes, greeters, kitchen teams, and at registration tables. The volunteers’ teamwork created what DeCaprio described as a well‑oiled machine that guided hundreds of participants smoothly through the event.

Early tallies show over $190,000 in front‑end donations, with organizers confident the total will exceed their $200,000 goal.

“We’re gonna hit $200,000,” DeCaprio said. “There are some pledges that haven’t been accounted for, and we have an off-site walk happening this Sunday in Grand Valley. So I am very confident that we are going to hit our goal.”

The fundraiser highlighted Orangeville’s civic pride: the town ranked extremely high among more than 200 Coldest Night events across Canada, a point of local pride given its modest population.

“We are the top nine in all of Canada right now,” DeCaprio said. “So there are 222 events happening across Canada, and we are number nine. When you think about that on the grand scale of things, versus cities like Toronto, Mississauga, Vancouver, they’re large metropolises… That blows me away every single time.”

Friendly rivalries — notably between the Optimist Club and St. Mark’s Marchers — helped spur engagement and gave a playful competitive edge that organizers say increased giving by roughly 30 per cent among those teams.

DeCaprio stressed that while the event’s haul is meaningful, $200,000 represents only a small part of their annual operating budget, underscoring continuing needs beyond a single successful night.

“We also need to remember $200,000 is [almost] less than one month of operating cost for us,” DeCaprio said. “Our operating budget is $1.5 million annually. So $200,000 is a good chunk, but it’s not a lot. And you know, our needs are increasing, so that $1.5 [million] is obviously going to increase next year.”

With donations accepted through the end of March and next year’s Coldest Night set for Feb. 27, the food bank thanked donors and volunteers for their generosity and vowed to build on this year’s momentum while keeping goals ambitious but attainable.

“Thank you,we are so grateful for our community,” DeCaprio said. “We would not be able to do the work that we do without support. We’re just so filled with gratitude. It is at times overwhelming how thankful we are, and we know we are blessed to be in a community that is so close-knit and takes care of itself.”

For more information on Coldest Night of the Year, go to en.cnoy.org/location/orangeville.

Readers Comments (0)