Sauk Prairie’s fight against hunger just got a little easier, thanks to the efforts of more than a thousand volunteers and nearly 10,000 pounds of donated food.
Sauk Prairie Against Hunger’s fifth annual food pack event was held Oct. 27-29 at Grand Avenue Elementary School.
“We count in terms of the number of meals packed, and this year we counted 304,776 meals,” said event organizer Jackie Bascom. “That’s four-and-a-half pallets of food beyond our original goal.”
Teams work to scoop nutritionally-sound ingredients like soy, dried vegetables, rice and vitamins with a chicken flavor into bags that are then packed and sent to third world countries, such as Haiti. Bascom said the meals are scientifically-formulated to get people into a healthier state from starvation much more quickly.
Not only did the event have more volunteers than years past – more people donated to the Canned Creations event, in which local businesses compete against one another to create designs and displays using boxes and cans of food. All of the food used in the building projects then is donated to the Sauk Prairie Area Food Pantry.
“We had a record number of people participating in our Canned Creations event, which means more food for the food pantry,” Bascom said.
Sauk Prairie Food Pantry Director Carol Gagnon said contributions nearly doubled last year’s donation.
“Last year they donated just over 5,000 pounds of food, which is awesome,” Gagnon said. “This year – well to get 9,283 pounds of food is just incredible.”
Sauk Prairie Against Hunger’s food pack event has quickly become the pantry’s largest single donation event. While the pantry is now very well stocked, it still needs crackers and canned fruit, Gagnon said. “Those are things we don’t get a lot of.”
Feeding the needy on a world and local level is what the event is about, Bascom said, but it’s also about bringing together families, doing good and raising awareness.
“This event is about changing hearts and opening minds to people’s needs that are larger than our own,” she said. “If we can do that for youth at a young age, than maybe we can truly change the world.”
