Adrian Steel boosts giving to food pantry - The Daily Telegram

Adrian Steel boosts giving to food pantry - The Daily Telegram

Lonnie Huhman Daily Telegram Staff Writer @lenaweehuhman

ADRIAN — Adrian Steel comes up big, again, for the Fishes & Loaves Food Pantry.

For the third year in a row, the Adrian-based company and its employees had a donation drive to help the 500 households this local food pantry serves. When it all was tallied, 92,197 pounds in food and other supplies were donated Friday afternoon to the pantry at 410 E. Maumee St. in Adrian.

“They’re awesome,” Fishes & Loaves director the Rev. Steve Palmer said, looking over the collected donations at Adrian Steel before they were shipped over to the pantry.

Pantry volunteer Brenda Knapp echoed this sentiment.

“These people here are just incredible,” she said. “Every year they’ve been so giving.”

Four truckloads were delivered to the pantry and another location where it keeps extra supplies. Zak Mosher, the Fishes & Loaves pantry director, said this donation is the biggest of the year for them and it means a lot, knowing it will meet the needs of many.

Mosher said on average they hand out about 8,000 pounds of food and goods a month. However, in the past two months it’s increased to 3,000 pounds a week.

“This will go a long way for us,” he said.

Adrian Steel kicked off their donation collection drive two weeks ago, but in many ways it’s something they look forward to and plan throughout the year. Susan Kirsch, an executive assistant and event planner for Adrian Steel, said the drive is an employee-driven project.

“It’s so much fun for us and it’s for a good cause,” she said.

The 300 or so employees at Adrian Steel divided into teams to compete and see which group could collect and donate the most. This year’s winner collected more than 24,000 pounds.

The first year the company donated 13,000 pounds and last year it gave 55,000.

Adrian Steel vice president Joe Emens said the company is charitable in many ways, but this drive really brings everyone together in a fun, competitive way.

“Our employees have a really good spirit,” he said.