From Kristin Bowl:
Thank you to EVERYONE who played any role in helping with the recent food drive for the Pantry on the Go. To bridge the gap and continue to provide food while the South County Food Pantry was closed, Trinity Lutheran spearheaded a food drive.
We served around 40 families each week for 11 weeks with bags of food, including pre-organized dinner ingredients and recipes to make those dinners, as well as fresh produce, meat and dairy items. Dinners included favorites such as tuna noodle casserole, baked macaroni and cheese, beans and rice and lots more. We kept everything simple and inexpensive to make donations stretch as far as they could and shopped for food items at stores like Aldi and Lidl.
Church members, friends, neighbors and strangers all lent a hand and every single donation we received helped us reach our goal each week by either making financial donations or dropping bags of food off to my porch and driveway. Alexandra, Kieran and I sorted the food each week, loaded and unloaded it at Willow Brook Seventh Day Adventist church on Mapleville Road where the Pantry on the Go was being hosted.
Special thanks to Theresa Foster for stepping in when my mom had hip replacement and making sure the food drive continued and being my partner for the final weeks.
Thank also to:
- Pastor Shawn Paris and the Willow Brook Seventh Day Adventist church for their partnership in this effort and for hosting 4 such food pantries across the county.
- Daisy Troop 15067 which collected lots of food and $375 in Weis gift cards for the drive.
- Mar-Lu-Ridge, which despite their own challenges trying to figure out how to operate during a difficult time, found a way to bake and deliver packages of dinner rolls for the families several times during the 11 weeks.
- Washington County Farm Bureau for providing 40 free gallons of milk
- Boonsboro Pharmacy for donating 6 boxes of food
- Matt Bernatz family for donating $500
- Jeff Zimmerman family for donating enough bags of food one evening to fill my entire porch.
- Harry & David store at the outlets, which donated a truckload of snacks and treats when their store closed
- Cline, Iager, Poffenberger and Williams families for providing nearly 40 dozen eggs every week, as well as hundreds of packages of meat, cheese, tortillas, salsa and more.
- Steve Jamison for helping out with his truck/trailer to help deliver food.
- Church families such as the Schwalbes, Rockwells, Fords, and Panthers who donated bags of food or made financial donations every week.
- Scores of others who donated – some I’m not aware of because their donations came to the church directly. If I have not mentioned you, please know how much I appreciate you.
- EVERY SINGLE person in the Boonsboro community who helped in any way – big or small – is appreciated. THANK YOU!
Whatever good was able to be done, it was because God directed all of our hearts to this small opportunity – in a time of turmoil.
May you continue to support the hungry in our community through the South County Food Pantry, which reopened July 2nd. They do this important work weekly all year long and deserve our gratitude and support.
