WOODBRIDGE, Ont. — Consolidated Fastfrate, one of Canada’s largest freight carriers, will join forces with Canadian Pacific Railway to raise funds and awareness for the needy this holiday season.

Consolidated Fastfrate has been a sponsor of CPR’s Holiday Train for its four years running and Ron Tepper, the company’s President and CEO, says two trains will travel to fifty communities throughout Canada in an effort to combat this social epidemic which is silently attacking our children. Of the estimated 800,000 people in this country who will turn to food banks each and every month, he says, 40 per cent of those are children.

The Holiday Train initiative has attracted thousands of people and has collected 73 tons of food and raised $900,000.

“I urge everyone in the communities being visited by the trains to come out and support this very important cause,” Tepper added.

The Holiday Train will make its first Canadian stop in Streetsville, Ontario on Dec. 5, 2002. For more information on Holiday Train stops, call Laura Cochrane at 416 542-9140 ext. 3361 or e-mail lcochrane@lexpr.com.