Fire department seeking support for holiday food box drive
DENNISON (WJER) (Dec. 7, 2022) – The village fire department is again partnering with T4C to put a holiday meal on the tables of families in its service region.
Chief Dave McConnell says they’re collecting non-perishable food, paper products, and other household essentials to put in the boxes they’re providing to more than 125 Share-A-Christmas program participants.
“Just to help out our local community. A way to give back for all the support and everything they do for us. We do a lot of things here at the fire department throughout the year to give back to our community and help out in any way we can.”
He says it’s something they’ve been doing every December since he became chief about 15 years ago.
“When we hand them families a really nice box full of food it helps out around Christmas, and we just want to say thank you to everyone who helps out as well as all the people that make this possible in the fire department. We donate a lot of time to do this and put these food baskets together, and these guys do that for free and they volunteer their own time.”
The department is also seeking monetary donations to buy whatever is still needed after the collection.
“Honestly, it all depends on how many items come in. And what we do is we generally keep it right around $3,000, $3,500. Last year, I think I spend like $4,000 at Mako’s and Save-A-Lot. I send over a list and they send me back a quote, so it all depends on the price of stuff, and we all know that everything has increased.”
The collection runs through next Tuesday. McConnell says Ember Complete Care has provided meat vouchers for food box recipients, who will also be getting a gift certificate for a free gallon of milk thanks to an anonymous donor.