Food drive nets more than $9K, over 200 turkeys
Cierra Devine (left) loads a donated turkey into the cart during the Samaritan Healthcare turkey and food drive recently. Peter Hanson, 6, and his family donated the bird.
MOSES LAKE - Residents donated more than $9,000 and more than 200 turkeys to the Moses Lake Food Bank through Samaritan Healthcare's Canned Food and Turkey Drive.
The food drive brought in $9,484 in donations, which is the second-highest total ever, Dave Campbell, of the Samaritan Foundation, said. People also donated 228 turkeys, he said. Volunteers prepared bags filled with canned food that people could buy for $10 and donate to the food drive, Campbell said. That netted 523 bags, a new record, he said.
"It's just been amazing, how generous people have been," Debbie Stolle said, who with her husband Dave was manning the donation booth (actually a couple of grocery carts) in Safeway's foyer Saturday afternoon. "We had one family that donated a whole cart of prepackaged bags."
Campbell said 60 Samaritan employees and their families collected donations Thursday through Saturday. Bella Valdez, who's in fifth grade, and Moses Lake High School freshman Cierra Devine, were helping their parents out at the other entrance by passing out fliers and keeping an eye on the grocery carts filled with donations. "We've gone through a bunch of carts already," Devine said, trying to calculate how much food they had collected.
The food bank still needs donations, both for Thanksgiving and the Christmas season, according to information from the food drive. Food bank operators are looking for donations of peas, green beans, canned pumpkin, cranberry sauce, canned chicken broth and canned meat such as tuna.