These girls have collected over 900 kilograms of food for hungry Londoners

Melike Akin knows what it's like to need the food bank. 

When her family first moved to Canada, the London Food Bank helped them a lot, the 12-year-old said. 

"Now that I'm older, I want to give back to people," said Akin.

Akin and seven friends, who call themselves the Goodness Angels, have collected over 900 kilograms of non-perishable food for the London Food Bank, going door-to-door to about 1,250 homes. They've held two food drives so far — one in January in north London so far — one in January and another last Sunday.. 

The eight 11 to 13-year-old girls are part of a Turkish community group that meets weekly to share their language and culture — and dream up ideas to help others.

"We just all want to do good for others, and this has been really fun helping people and hanging out together," said Akin.

They saw Londoners rally to help people in Turkey and Syria after the earthquake in February, she said.

"Everybody has been really helpful in London and Canada, and we wanted to give back to the community."

A lot of the girls have felt the need to depend on others, so they can relate to what other people are going through, said Lorraine Cannom, whose daughter is in the group. 

They came to Canada and received help from the London community, and this is a way to give back now that they've gotten on their feet, she said. 

"We were really proud of them for being able to give all this effort to this cause of helping others."

Cannom's 12-year-old daughter, Leyla Cetintas, moved to Canada from Turkey when she was five.

For her, the name the Goodness Angels is about helping people without expecting anything in return, she said. They soon hope to plant some trees, bake food for the homeless and help the food bank again, said Cetintas. 

"Nowadays, food has been getting very expensive, and there might be people out there that have trouble affording it all," she said. "We'd like to be able to help people."