by Linda White
Every holiday season, for over 30 plus years, on the first Saturday of December, the Loveland neighborhood of Pheasant Hills has enthusiastically embraced and supported the Pheasant Hills Annual Neighborhood Holiday Food Drive to benefit the L.I.F.E. Food Pantry. The Pantry serves individuals, families and seniors who reside in the Loveland School District. Approximately 20 years ago, this Holiday Food Drive expanded to include volunteers and donations from the adjacent neighborhoods of Pheasant Hills on the Lake and Claiborne (west of Lebanon Road).
[quote_left]This year over 325 generously filled bags were picked up along with over 124 plastic bags of donations and $570 in cash donations.[/quote_left] This year with the help of over 60 volunteers from these three neighborhoods, 484 grocery bags were distributed to neighbor’s home the week prior to the December 3rd food drive. Distributing the grocery bags prior to the drive makes donating as easy as possible. Flyers are attached to the bags with a suggested donation list and instructions to leave the bag on their front porch for pick up the morning of the food drive.
Volunteer groups made up of individuals and families were given maps of assigned homes for picking up bags that they then transported to Prince of Peace Church where the L.I.F.E. Food Pantry is housed. This year over 325 generously filled bags were picked up along with over 124 plastic bags of donations and $570 in cash donations. As the number of neighborhood volunteers has increased over the years, the total time involved has whittled down from 8 hours to less than one and one-half hours. This time includes, collecting all the bags, delivering them to Prince of Peace, unloading the bags, sorting the food donations, date checking, to boxing the donations up for storage with the additional help from the L.I.F.E. Food Pantry volunteers!
The Food Drive has become a Holiday tradition for our neighborhoods. Many of the same families and individuals have volunteered with this community project year after year. This food drive has always been a holiday project that an entire family with any age child can take part in together. The overwhelming generosity of the three neighborhoods has always been greatly appreciated by the L.I.F.E. Food Panty.
In the early years the Pheasant Hills Annual Neighborhood Holiday Food Drive benefited the Loveland Free Store.