The Ottawa Food Bank received its largest individual donation in 40 years of operation.

The humanitarian organization Khalsa Aid Canada collaborated with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board to collect 15,000 pounds of food.

The donated funds were extended with the help of grocery supplier Italfoods. Together, they were able to deliver 210,000 pounds of food to the Pantry Street warehouse on Saturday afternoon.

Volunteers and students formed a human conveyor belt to unload one of the trucks filled with food, moving the donations inside to be stored by the food bank staff.

Rachel Wilson, the CEO of the Ottawa Food Bank, said, "We have never seen this amount of food donated to us in a single day." "This means that individuals can rely on their local food bank and ensure they have enough food for their families."

This donation broke the previous record of 182,000 pounds set in 2013. This latest donation amounts to around 420,000 meals to go to children in need, as vital breakfast and lunch programs stop operating during the summer.

Mandeep Singh, the regional director of Khalsa Aid, stated, "36% of food bank users are children." "These are the kids who wake up hungry and go to bed hungry every day."

Singh explained that this statistic drove Khalsa Aid to attempt to break the donation record, but he attributes the success of the initiative to many OCDSB students who helped spread the idea in their classrooms.

Singh said, "They were collecting food donations, and they were doing bake sales - even many first-grade and kindergarten students were giving a dollar or two from their allowances as part of the food drive."

Blake Myatt, a student at Avalon Public School, told CTV News on Saturday, "I feel amazed when I help people in need and do this to help people who aren’t as lucky as me."

The event today caught the attention of city officials and dignitaries, including city Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, with words from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau read to the audience.

Singh said, "We believe that if we knock on more doors, and pick up the phone and call, it will be easier to break the world record next year."

This recent wave of optimism has strengthened the food bank's goal to eliminate food insecurity in Ottawa by 2050, although Wilson says that this will only come to fruition through similar community efforts.

She said, "There is no regional or federal funding for food banks in Ottawa or Ontario in this regard. We have received about 98 percent of our funding and food from the community. We really rely on the community and hope they continue to support us."

In February, the Ottawa Food Bank received $100,000, a one-time grant to support its programs and services - a Trillium grant.