Canton Bank Tops in Food Drive

Canton food pantries won't have to worry about a shortage of peanut butter and jelly—at least for a little while.

With the help of and , the Canton branch of collected 410 jars for the food pantries at and the .

That was more than any other branch across metro Atlanta.

“The challenging economy has caused more and more families to reach out to local food banks for assistance and we felt compelled to take action,” said Don Howard, CEO of the bank's parent company, Synovus Bank. “Our team has a genuine soft-spot for kids and we want to be sure they have the nutritious food they need to get through the day energized and excited to learn. Inviting our local school partners to join in the collection effort proved we can make a tremendous impact when we work together to support a worthy cause.”

This was the fifth year that divisions of Synovus Bank held the "Spread the Love" Peanut Butter and Jelly Food Drive to benefit 37 metro Atlanta food pantries.

Twenty-five partner schools contributed 54.5 percent of the total jars collected this year, spokeswoman Lauren Muzzy said. The Kiwanis Club of Covington, in Canton, the , and in Canton donated a total of 135 jars.

In all, Bank of North Georgia and Bank of Coweta collected 8,782 jars, which was equivalent to more than 6 tons of peanut butter and jelly.

"That is enough to make more than 97,818 sandwiches," Muzzy said.