Attempting to reclaim a Guinness World Record for the most non-perishable food collected in a single day is not a piece of cake.

It’s a complicated operation involving nearly 10,000 volunteers, more than 300,000 plastic bags, thousands of households across the city and several forklifts and freight trucks.

To celebrate the Calgary Inter-Faith Food Bank’s 30th year of service in the city, the organization’s 8th annual citywide food drive aimed to collect 560,000 pounds of food on Saturday.

In 2008, the annual Calgary event broke a world record by collecting more than 500,000 pounds of food, a record that was recently broke by an American charity in 2011.

While the food bank’s world record attempt fell short on Saturday, the event still managed to raise more than 520,000 pounds of food.

“All we can do is say thank you ... This to me is such a great display of what our community does when we come together to help each other,” said Kathryn Sim, the food bank’s communications and marketing co-ordinator.

The food drive was coordinated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and spokesperson Larry Spackman said it’s a chance to give back to the community.

“What the church is doing is giving an opportunity for Calgarians to be generous and Calgarians are very generous,” he said.

Beginning at 10 a.m. on Saturday morning, thousands of volunteers visited every home in the city to pick up donation bags, which were delivered to Calgary households earlier in the week.

White plastic bags full of food were driven to seven locations across the city, including a southwest Walmart parking lot, where the donations were placed in large brown boxes.

Boxes packed with donations were moved into freight trucks by forklifts and once each truck was full, it was driven to the food bank, where the food was weighed before being placed in the facility’s large storage warehouse.

“It will be out the door and on people’s tables within six weeks,” said Sim.

Sim said the food collected on Saturday would benefit thousands of people and families, including children in school.

“Imagine if you’re getting maybe one meal a day and you’re trying to go to school,” Sim said. “To try and help break that cycle of poverty, we’re trying to get good nutritious meals into young Calgarians so when they go to school they get opportunities to learn and move forward with their lives.”

Nearly 150,000 Calgarians, 40 per cent of whom are children, used the food bank last year.

While the food drive has grown into a mammoth citywide operation that is one of the largest volunteer events in Calgary and one of the largest single-day food drives in North America, it’s not the only time the food bank needs non-perishable food donations.

“They need lots more food all year long,” Spackman said.

AKlingbeil@calgaryherald.com