The Salvation Army received a five-figure cheque donation from SWT and Farm Credit Canada yesterday.

On hand to present the cheque to Major Don Grad of the Swift Current Salvation Army were John Steele, Relationship Manager at Farm Credit Canada, and Monty Reich, General Manager of SWT.

$53,436.60 was raised as part of 'Drive Away Hunger', a joint fundraising program between FCC and SWT.

SWT GM Monty Reich explains this year's push to donate came from both employees and customers.

"So the money was raised through the first couple weeks of October and it's a big push with our farm customers and our employees.

Many of our farm customers are donating partial or even full loads of grain, and there are employees are donating portions of their cheques to the FCC and SWT "Drive Away Hunger' program," he said.

Reich also comments on the importance of community service to a regional company like SWT.

"We like to be a part of organizations that are helping with the community and helping those in need, specifically in southwest Saskatchewan.

We have amazing support from all of our teams and locations which are in southwest Saskatchewan and in small communities.

So we feel that we want to give - a lot of our employees live and work in small towns.

Community service is part of our mantra - it's what we're made of, and we like to give back as much as we can," he said.

The GM of SWT explains that the total funds raised this year were a pleasant surprise.

"It was pretty amazing how over the last week all of a sudden we had a big push from our customers and our employees - it definitely exceeded our expectations," he said.

Major Don Grad echoed the thoughts of the entire branch of the Swift Current Salvation Army when he exclaimed how thankful he was for the donation and support from Farm Credit Canada and SWT.

In fact, the Major presented Monty Reich and SWT with a Certificate of Appreciation for their support.