City beats out county in annual food drive
Published 6:00 am Tuesday, November 26, 2019
- The city and county donated 6 pallets worth of food to the Salvation Army. Pictured left to right: Craig Clark, Austin city administrator, Trish Harren, Mower County administrator, Mayor Tom Stiehm and Jeff Weaver, recycling center manager. Photos provided
Thanks to the good-natured battle between city and county employees, the Salvation Army’s food shelf will be able to add six pallets worth of donated food to its stock.
The county gathered more food in total, with 2,122 pounds of food (266 employees, 7.98 pounds per employee) donated; however, while the city came in at 1,485 pounds (151 employees, 9.83 pounds per employee) donated, the number represented more donated food per city employee than county employee.
Pictured left to right: James Brown, Amanda Kiefer, Melissa Deters, Jennifer Crews, Nancy Kirtzs. $1,057 was collected for shopping for non-perishable foods and then they power shopped at Aldi.
The totals were weighed and divided among the respective number of employees on Friday afternoon at the recycling center.
County Administrator Trish Harren will present the traveling plaque at an upcoming City Council meeting.
This year marks the second best year for the county in terms of total number of pounds collected, coming in behind the total for 2002.
Since 1993, the county and city have collected 59,150 pounds of food.
