9-year-old Cape Breton artist uses his talents to help local food bank

Nine-year-old Max MacMillan from Cape Breton decided to donate the proceeds from his drawings to the local food bank.

“I had an idea to make drawings and make money, and then I had another idea to make it for the food bank,” said Max MacMillan.

“He just has all of his drawings and he came out of his room and said ‘Mom do you think I can get money for my drawings?’ and I said maybe and he brought them all out and laid them down,” said Holly MacMillan, Max’s mother.

Max said he decided to help the local food bank so he could help people in need. Each drawing takes him about 30 minutes to complete.

“My favorite thing about drawing is I like to be creative. These pictures take 30 minutes to draw. People ask for a certain picture and I will draw them.”

Holly says the reaction from Max’s drawings has been overwhelming.

“The reaction we received from everybody was completely overwhelming, the support for the community and what Max did was just mind blowing to everybody,” said Holly.

When Max and his mother brought the drawings to the food bank. Holly said they were surprised by the donation.

“So when we original went to the food bank, Max just had an envelope and he was carrying it in and we were met by Stacy. I don’t think Stacy realized when we arrived what the envelope actually had in it. So when Max did open the envelope and give it to her, she was blown away,” said Holly.

Stacy then gave Max a tour of the facility.

“She showed him all around the food bank and showed him the process that is done when families come in. He was very happy. So at the end of it she told Max he could take one thing from the food bank and he choose an apple,” said Holly.

Max said he enjoyed touring the food bank.

“That was really fun touring the food bank. That was really cool.” 

With files from CTV Atlantic's Darryl Reeves.

For more Nova Scotia news visit our dedicated provincial page.