West Coast Eagles members and fans provided 10,296 meals for hungry West Australians during its fifth annual Cans for a Cause drive at Domain Stadium last Saturday.

Cans for a Cause supports one of the club's most worthy charities, Foodbank WA, and offers West Coast fans the opportunity to help fight hunger by donating cans of food prior to the game.

West Coast Eagles legend and former assistant coach Don Pyke founded the initiative in 2013 and since its inception Cans for a Cause has collected 46,296 meals, after exceeding its 10,000-meal target at the weekend.

Although Pyke has moved on from the club, the West Coast OWLS (older, wiser, larger, slower) legends once again showed their support. Club greats, including inaugural Eagles captain Ross Glendinning, Phil Scott, Kasey Green, Michael Collica and Travis Gaspar, volunteered to collect food donations and sign posters for fans prior to the game.

“We are extremely proud of our partnership with the West Coast Eagles and we are delighted to exceed our target of 10,000 meals this year,” Foodbank WA chief executive Greg Hebble said.

“It was great to see the West Coast Eagles members and fans really get behind the cause and do their bit to help fight hunger. We are also very grateful to the OWLS for volunteering their time to make the day a success.

“As the weather starts to cool, many people in our community will struggle to stay warm and well fed, so winter is always one of our busiest times of year. Of the 53,000 people that rely on us for a meal each month, 22,000 are children. Sadly, we also know that there are many more that miss out due to the lack of available food.”

“The canned goods collected will be distributed across all six branches to provide winter staple foods across the state. The volume and variety of foods donated was just fantastic and included much needed items such as canned soup, tinned meat and canned fruits and vegetables.” 

Foodbank ambassador and West Coast Eagles captain Shannon Hurn said it was great to see the OWLS get behind Cans for a Cause.

“Foodbank provides over 5.7 million meals to Western Australians in need each year,” Hurn said.

“For our members and past players to get behind such a great cause year after year really shows how generous the West Coast family is.”

If you would like to make a donation to Foodbank please visit www.foodbankwa.org.au for more information.