Area Food Shelves Set To Receive 100,000 Meals

(KNSI) – About 450 volunteers will pitch in at the River’s Edge Convention Center on Sunday for the annual We Are Thankful food packaging drive.

Kids Fighting Hunger Executive Director Cathy Wogen says it is actually two events in one. “If people would like to still somehow be involved, we are holding a non-perishable food drive to benefit Catholic Charities concurrently that day.”

Coborn’s has donated 10,000 boxes of macaroni and cheese. We Are Thankful volunteers will prepare the other 90,000 packages that area food shelves have requested. They’ll include oatmeal and rice.

Anything above and beyond that figure benefits Catholic Charities. The event bundled up 140,000 meals last year. Everything stays local, serving communities between Albany and Elk River.

Wogen says the event lives up to the Kids Fighting Hunger name. Athletes from the Apollo Football, Sartell Boys Swim and Dive, and Sartell Boys Hockey teams will be there. They’ll do the heavy lifting alongside St. John’s University Men’s Golf and Student Athletic Advisory Committee members and the St. Cloud State University Men’s Basketball Team.

Wogen says other students are involved, too. “Young people want to do service. It’s just so heartwarming to see youth come out and be passionate about helping their community. Kiwanis sponsors 100 high school students annually to come and pack from our sixth area high schools.”

The 100 students will likely put together about 25,000 meals by themselves.

Wogen says they are raising money for Kids Fighting Hunger as well. The funds will help keep the organization going throughout the rest of the year. She says the nonprofit was impacted during COVID financially, like so many were, and the monetary component is important. They are about $3,000 short of their goal as of Friday morning.

Donations are accepted through the mail. Send a check to Kids Fighting Hunger, P.O. Box 7550, St. Cloud, MN, 56302. A contribution can be made online too. The link is here.

___