A sizable crowd turned out to enjoy Canadian Pacific Railway's Holiday Train on Sunday evening as it passed through downtown Minot.
Willy Soderholm, executive director of Community Action Partnership, said many people brought canned food to donate to the Minot Area Homeless Coalition. The back of a white trailer was filling up quickly. The food will eventually be distributed to area food pantries. Soderholm said area businesses, organizations and individuals have been generous this year and have donated food, presents and even turkeys for holiday dinners.
The Holiday Train made stops in Harvey and Kenmare as well on Sunday night. The train has 14 brightly decorated rail cars and a modified box car that is a traveling stage for performers. The cars have been decorated with hundreds of thousands of LED Christmas lights.
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Andrea Johnson/MDN • A group performs Christmas carols from a modified box car on the Holiday Train that has been turned into a traveling stage.
Different holiday trains stops visit more than 150 communities in the United States and Canada to raise money and awareness about hunger issues. The trains start in Beaconsfield, Quebec, and end in Scranton, Pa.
The Holiday Train program has raised nearly $6.4 million and about 2.6 million pounds of food for food banks in North America in its existence.