Volunteers help stock pantries

MILFORD n Through the initiative of Sue Casey, Troop 610 Girl Scout leader, the United Way of Pike County recently donated over 500 boxes of dry cereal to four local food pantries. Sue decided that a good way to have a successful food drive would be to pick one specific item for people to donate. “I wanted to provide a fun way for people to donate food. The concentration on cereal made it easy for people to go to the store and buy a few boxes to donate, and cereal goes a long way.” said Casey. Sue was also responsible for organizing a group of volunteers to help collect and distribute the food. Her volunteers were Sam Juro, Cory Wilson, Megan Welsh, Casey Wilson, Faith Torkildsen, and Aly Gentry. The United Way of Pike County recruited some young volunteers to help give back to the community. The volunteers began and maintained a food drive of dry cereal over the course of several months. After collection, the cereal was counted and divided equally to five local food pantries: the Good Shepherd Ecumenical in Milford, Holy Trinity in Dingmans, Loaves ‘n Fishes Methodist in Paupack, Bushkill Outreach in Bushkill and Good Cheer in Greeley. “It was such a pleasant experience to work with these volunteers. They handled everything from collecting the cereal to figuring out where it was going to be distributed. I am thankful that these youth really stepped up with this project.” stated Peter Ioppolo, United Way of Pike County President.