The "Give It Away Now" food drive, spearheaded by the Life Teen Underground Youth Group, provided an opportunity for the parishes of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church and St. Joseph Catholic Church to work together as one Catholic family to accomplish a corporal work of mercy by feeding the hungry in the community.
Recently, the youth group issued a challenge to the parish families to collect enough food to fill a 70-passenger school bus.
"(On Oct. 11) the impossible happened," wrote Mike Krueger, director of youth ministry for the parishes. "The parishes ... donated 6,725 pounds of food to the Father Fred Foundation food pantry. This was enough canned and boxed food to fill the school bus one-and-a-half times!"
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Inspired by Gaylord resident Connie Turner's personal commitment to bake cookies to "Treat the Troops," Career-Tech Center culinary arts staff and students and Traverse City Sam's Club recently baked more than 4,000 cookies for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Connie has baked nearly 50,000 cookies at her home to send to U.S. troops, mostly at her own expense. She and her husband Arlen were thrilled to help oversee the baking operation at the CTC.
"We packaged and sent 25 boxes of cookies and notes to troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan," wrote CTC Assistant Principal Brent Boerema. "Connie Turner and her husband Arlen were very happy to have the chance to work with our kids from the Career-Tech Center. We (also) had donations from Sam's Club, both ingredients and nine of the team members, CTC staff and CTC students."
More than 30 students and another 30 adults volunteered their time. Camp Shawano sent 300 cookies, volunteers from the community dropped off more than 100 cookies and someone from the Gaylord area offered to pay the $300 in postage. People also have contacted the Career-Tech Center to drop off donations for future baking.
"Cindee Jo Atkinson and students of the CTC's Culinary Arts program will continue to bake cookies into November to be sent with future mailings," Principal Boerema wrote.
Anyone wanting to donate toward ingredients or postage can call Boerema, at 922-6369, or drop money off at the Career-Tech Center, 880 Parsons Road.
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Members of Weight Watchers in Traverse City have joined the campaign to raise money and collect non-perishable food to feed the hungry as they lose weight.
Weight Watchers has agreed to donate 25 cents per pound for every pound lost by Weight Watchers' members.
Recently WW members who attend meetings at the Traverse City Center lost 1,452 pounds and donated more than 1,000 pounds of food to the Father Fred Foundation.
"The Father Fred Foundation made us feel like we gave them the best present in the world when they came to pick up the donations," wrote Area Manager Deborah Roels. "We called and they were here with a truck and a team within minutes!"
Stephanie Beach can be reached at sbeach@record-eagle.com.
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