My name is Billy Drake and I am doing a holiday food drive on behalf of the Bo Tkach Foundation for my Eagle Scout Project. I have been collecting the food for the Palmerton Food Pantry at the Turkey Trot every year. Since there is no Turkey Trot I thought we could still do the food drive and I will coordinate it for the foundation.
I will also be collecting food in person on November 22nd and November 29th from 9am to 1pm at the Country Harvest
Billy contacted the pantry at the start of the project and was told at highest they have had 215 families coming to the pantry for the monthly distribution
He set the goal of making sure he could give 215 holiday meals
Summary:
The following items were collected making 220 holiday meals:
Mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, vegetables, cranberry sauce, and cake mixes with icing
This was done through a variety of methods. Scouts stood at the Country Harvest two days collecting, individuals donated through drop boxes, collections, and friends/family
Six large boxes of a variety of other foods and 3 cases of drinks were also collected
Online donations totaled $5,564.
This was presented to the food pantry in a check on December 1, 2020 with a box truck full of food. Due to COVID affecting supply turkeys were not able to be purchased in the large amount needed. Country Harvest ordered turkeys in August and was unable to get another supply. Instead the pantry decided to purchase large roster chickens, sausage, and eggs. This would also mean a holiday breakfast for the families.
Since all ordering needs to be done well in advance the pantry had enough funds left over to purchase Easter Hams.
Thank you to all who helped to make this a success and we were happy to do this on behalf of the Foundation
The Drake Family