Can Man Dan camps out for Edmonton Food Bank

While many Edmontonians are doing everything they can to avoid the weather, one man is camping outside in a U-Haul truck to fundraise for the Edmonton Food Bank.

Dan Johnstone, locally known as “Can Man Dan” moved into his U-haul, which is parked outside of the Terra Losa Safeway in west Edmonton, at 6 a.m. on Friday.

His goal is to raise as much food, money and awareness as possible by 6 p.m. Sunday night – which means spending 60 hours braving the elements in the name of charity.

“It’s a stressful time of year for people and I want to take a little bit of that stress off,” he said.

“I grew up in a single-mother household with a brother and, despite her best efforts – she worked very hard – sometimes there’s just not enough food to go around by the time you pay bills. And [when] you’ve got Christmas … we relied on the food bank a lot.”

Now, Johnstone wants to do whatever he can to help ensure other children are able to open some presents and have a hot meal this Christmas as well.

And he says every contribution helps.

“You just drop whatever you can,” he said. “I mean, if you can donate a dollar, sure, I mean every little bit helps. I'm not picky and neither is anyone else.”

Last year, Can Man Dan raised more than $8,000 and 15,000 lbs of food.