Contributed by Mike Feazel
The Gifted Ladies food drive at the Lake Thursday (June 15) netted over 2,400 pounds of food for the Fluvanna Food Bank, an amount that organizer Connie West called “not bad for our first time out!”
“The people at the food bank were thrilled and very thankful” when the Gifted Ladies delivered two truckloads of food, West said. Food bank shelves often get a little bare this time of year, when fewer food drives tend to be organized, she said.
The food, which was donated by Lake residents, was collected by 22 members of the Gifted Ladies, plus four male helpers. The food was then sorted and loaded into the trucks for transport to the food bank.
The Gifted Ladies “are already thinking about doing another” food drive, West said, possibly at this time next year. “All the groups in the area give at Thanksgiving and Christmas, but we forget that people need to eat during the summer months as well,” she said. Another possibility is another drive this year focused on things like toilet paper, toiletries, and diapers, “again things nobody thinks about” but that the food bank said is a big need, she said.
Among the volunteers were Yvonne Arcement, Lynn Sanders, Barb Benski, Janice Decker, Jennifer Gilligan, Gene Arcement, Matt Dringo and his children Coop and Stella, Pete Lowenstein, Scott Mien, Thomas Ward and Pat Stenger.
