Feed the Need food drive overwhelming success

Above, Rae Wagoner accepts donations of $1 from Courtney and Amber Finley -Bobbie Foust/Herald Ledger

Organizers of Lyon County’s first Feed the Need food drive said they were overwhelmed with the response.
“It was a great day for Lyon County from the standpoint of giving,” said Keith Adcock, manager at Food Giant in Eddyville. “We can be thankful; it was a very inspirational day, and we were happy to be part of it.”
Food Giant and Hancock’s Neighborhood Market collaborated with the Herald Ledger in the drive on Saturday, which was aimed at filling the shelves of HOPE Food Bank.
The drive fulfilled its aim, and the donations had volunteers at the food bank in tears as truck loads of bagged food rolled in throughout the day.
Shoppers donated 256 bags of groceries, $1,289 in cash and $190 in Food Giant Smart Shopper stamps. Dozens of bags of food were also brought in before the drive began.
“I’m not sure we’ll ever get a really perfect number because it is primarily estimates, but I would say we did between $4,500 and $5,000 worth of good for the community whether that was in cash, stamps or donations of groceries,” said Rae Wagoner, general manager at the Herald whose idea sparked the drive.
Two little girls provided perhaps the most touching example of community generosity. After they and their mother had made their initial donation and left Food Giant, Courtney and Amber Finley came running back inside each waving a $1 bill.
“We decided to donate the rest of our allowance,” they said in unison as each handed her dollar to Wagoner.
Wagoner, along with co-chair Jim Nutty, worked the drive from shortly after 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. when the last groceries were delivered to the bank. Wagoner worked at Food Giant as well as going back and forth as liason between the two stores and the food bank, while Nutty and volunteers from Chestnut Oak United Methodist Church worked at Hancock’s Neighborhood Market.
“Along about 4:30 or so, I got kind of tired because I’d been lifting those heavy grocery bags all day, and running and running ... but about the time I started getting that total, my back didn’t hurt any more,” Wagoner said.
Nutty called the “outreach of the people in this community absolutely amazing.”
“The results were far beyond anything anyone anticipated,” he said. “Our minister at church was astounded.”
Nutty complimented Hancock’s employees for their active promotion of the event. “They were very helpful,” he said. “When they’d see someone they knew, they would come running over and grab a sack and say, ‘You’ve got to fill this one up.’”
Allison Hancock Oliver, Neighborhood Market owner, said her store had a “great, great response from the community.”
“We’ve got a generous community; all our customers are generous,” she said. “I was really impressed with the way it was organized with the bags and the list of groceries attached. I think it was definitely a good cause. Everybody in our area is on a tight budget right now, but still they are willing to give.”
HOPE Food Bank Director Linda Outlaw called the drive “overwhelming.”
“It was much more than anyone ever thought it would be,” she said. “They gave money, they gave food and they gave their time. I got so emotional. ... Rae was wonderful, and without her and Jim Nutty, it wouldn’t have gotten started. The people at Hancock’s and Keith (Adcock), and Jim and Rae stepped up.”
Wagoner said one of the most gratifying things she observed was that “people would come in for no other reason than to donate to the food drive.”
“Some people came in to bring groceries that they had already purchased for the food drive, and that was the only reason they came that day,” she said. “We had several people who came in for no other reason than to make a substantial cash donation. We probably had three $100 donations and some $50s and $75s. We had a fish bowl, and it just stayed stuffed full all the time.”
Besides the larger donations, many donated $1 or $5 and some donated the change from their pockets.
“There were a lot of folks who couldn’t give the $100 or the $50, and that was great because we had a whole lot of $1 donations that added right up. ... Some people are in circiumstances where they couldn’t afford to donate cash so we accepted their Food Giant stamps.”