Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
St. Vincent De Paul Food Pantry receives more than 1,500 pounds of donated food
BRITTNEY CEBOLSKI passes a box to Ciara Novascone Thursday at the Michigan State Police Wakefield Post. Both are members of the St. Sebastian Youth Group in Bessemer and volunteered to help haul non-perishable food donations from the MSP post to St. Vincent De Paul Food Pantry in Bessemer.
WAKEFIELD - After a month of collecting donations for its first ever food drive, the Michigan State Police Wakefield Post delivered more than 1,500 pounds to St. Vincent De Paul Food Pantry in Bessemer Thursday.
Throughout April, troopers collected donations throughout the community to help the pantry. According to Lt. Donald Horn, the troopers decided to help a charity, and wanted to do something "people don't always talk about.
"People don't always talk about donating food, so we wanted to do that," Horn said. "This winter has also been hard, so we wanted to help re-stock the shelves."
Students from the St. Sebastian Youth Group in Bessemer donated their time to help load the donations to be sent to the food pantry. Students also volunteered to help weigh and organize the food at St. Vincent.
For Judy Levra, of the food pantry, the donations are "amazing." When troopers and volunteers arrived, Levra simply said, "God bless you."
In total, 1,567 pounds of food were donated, and Levra said it will help many families in the area.
"Whenever we receive food, we always need it," Levra said. "People are hungry every day. Some people donate at Christmas, and we appreciate it, but people are also hungry on Dec. 26. Donations help so many, and I have the best part of this. I get to see the smiles on people's faces when they come to get food."
According to Horn, the event may continue into the future because of the success.
"Every trooper donated, but the majority came from the community," Horn said. "It was a good response from the community."
Levra thanked the student volunteers, MSP and the community for helping at the pantry and donating
"The future is our youth," Levra said. "Having them here helping is wonderful. So often we hear about the bad stuff, but there is so much good out there; good kids, good organizations. I think it's tremendous that law enforcement serves our communities in many, many ways. We are just so thankful.
"On behalf of St. Vincent De Paul, God bless each and everyone who participated in any way in this food drive."
For more information, call the MSP Wakefield Post at 906-229-5372 or St. Vincent De Paul Food Pantry at 906-663-4436.
