St. Cloud Metro Bus hosted a very successful food drive in early December with a 42 percent increase in cash donations over the previous year.
According to local food shelf representatives, the $2,200 collected through this year’s drive will be able to purchase $13,000-$22,000 worth of food. This is because of a matching grant offered through a local foundation and their access to the Second Harvest food bank where their dollar has 3-5 times more purchasing power than an individual buying from a grocery store.
“We put the ‘drive’ in food drive by using one of our buses as the collection point,” said Ryan Daniel, executive director of Metro Bus.
The 35-foot New Flyer bus, which lends its name to the “Fill the Flyer” food drive, operates as the mobile collection point. The drive runs three hours a day for six days, parking at a different grocery store each day. It is staffed by Metro Bus and volunteers from partner agencies. Since the drive started in 2011, more than 15,000 pounds and just over $7,000 have been collected during the winter drive.
