Rosemount Rotary food drive finds success

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When the Rosemount Rotary Club started its food drive at the beginning of March the goal was to collect 500 pounds.

Apparently, they were aiming a bit low. The club brought in more than 2,500 pounds of food as part of Minnesota Food Share Month.

Rotary member Laura Briggs said the club has been astonished at the outpouring of support they received from the community for the food drive. More than 85 businesses let the club have boxes in their locations to collect food and several held promotions to encourage giving. Marcus Movie Theater offered free popcorn with the donation of food the weekend of the Hunger Games premiere. And Sterling State Bank donated $1 for every pound raised, up to $500. A group from the Glendalough neighborhood also donated a lot of food.

“It was really cool,” said Briggs. “Every week at the club meetings we had updates and the club members were just amazed.”

Briggs said the club hopes to make the food drive an annual tradition. Based on their first-year success, Briggs said there is a lot of excitement going into the future.

“We didn’t realize how many people would come forward,” said Briggs.

The food collected was donated to the Rosemount Family Resource Center, which runs a 360 Communities Food Shelf. The food shelf serves more than 600 people a month half of whom are children.

Minnesota Food Share directs a March campaign to restock food shelves across the state. The organization recruits groups to run local drives such as the Rosemount Rotary Club effort.

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