Chris Grev, United Way of Mower County marketing specialist, said she screamed when they added up the donations received this year.

UWMC broke a record: With a plethora of fundraisers and charities, workers raised $1.03 million this fiscal year.

“We couldn’t thank the community enough,” Grev said. “To reach this number in this community is amazing.”

Mandi Lighthizer-Schmidt, UWMC executive director, told a packed room at the Hormel Historic Home Tuesday night this was the first time they raised more than $1 million.

Donations from local businesses were up across the board, as Hormel Corporate Office, the Hormel Plant, Quality Pork Products, and Austin Medical Center all increased donations, once again making up the bulk of UWMC’s campaign.

The Hormel Corporate Office raised about $230,000, while the Hormel Plant raised $134,000. QPP’s donation of about $151,000 rounded out Hormel’s contribution, while AMC’s $47,000 beat out their $40,000 from last year.

UWMC workers hoped they’d beat last year’s total donations of $972,000, but were very surprised to see they’d raised more than $1 million.

Their campaign isn’t technically over until June, when the fiscal year ends. Thus far, $770,000 has been promised to programs UWMC currently funds. A majority of the surplus will go towards administrative costs, but UWMC workers are starting a new hunger initiative in Mower County, which will take $30,000 to start.

It isn’t the first time UWMC has dealt with hunger issues. UWMC paired with Hunger-Free Minnesota last year, when that group gave a presentation about its mission to local residents in August.

According to research done by the Boston Consulting group for Hunger-Free Minnesota, about 6,376 out of 14,200 eligible Mower County residents participate in food support programs, specifically the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. About 14 percent of Mower County’s residents miss a meal every day, according to UWMC workers.

“We’re really, really fortunate that our community is really serious and aware of what needs there are,” said Maryanne Law, director of the Parenting Resource Center.

There was one person willing to share her story of how UWMC helped her Tuesday evening. Mandy Nelson, a 28-year-old single mother of two, is a recovering alcoholic, a former drug addict, expecting her third child and is putting herself through college. She spoke for about 10 minutes, telling a crowd of public officials and local leaders about her life and the trials she’s been through. Given up for adoption at the age of 13, Nelson was in and out of foster homes and treatment centers until she graduated from high school, after being held back a year and completing 108 hours of community service for the trouble she got into as a teenager.

Nelson said with the help of therapists and social workers she has turned her life around. She credits that to the donations people give to UWMC, which gives to area mental health services.

“If it wasn’t for those donations, people that go through the stuff that I have would not have (help),” she said.