Boyer’s ‘Feed a Family Days’ Tuesday, Saturday
The Tamaqua Community Hunger Campaign has announced that it will have “Feed A Family Days” on Tuesday and Sunday at Boyer’s Market in Tamaqua.
The idea for the event isn’t new.
Tamaqua Hunger Campaign planner Glenn Fritzinger said he saw what Gerrity’s markets were doing this in the Scranton and Wilkes-Barre areas and thought it was a good idea. A shopper could purchase a bag of groceries to donate to a food campaign and the bag would include items costing more than what the shopper paid.
So the Tamaqua planning team took the idea to Brian Clemson, manager of Boyer’s Market in Tamaqua, who in turn sent it to Boyer’s corporate office in Orwigsburg. They liked the idea.
Shoppers will have the opportunity to purchase a bag of food at Boyer’s in Tamaqua, which they can give immediately to campaign volunteers outside the market. The bag will contain more food than the price of the bag. If a shopper chooses not to purchase a bag but would like to purchase a few items on their own and donate them, that’s possible, too. Cash donations also will be accepted by the campaign volunteers.
All proceeds — food items and money — benefit Tamaqua’s four food pantries at American Primitive Methodist Church, Stokes Ministries, Trinity United Church of Christ and Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church’s People’s Pantry kiosk. Together the four pantries serve more than 700 families a month in the Tamaqua area.
This is the 14th annual hunger campaign in Tamaqua. Last year’s effort raised $18,000 and collected 125 bags and boxes of food, which was distributed to the four pantries based on the number of people each serves.
“Boyer’s is very involved in support the local food banks,” Clemson said. “We have an annual food bank drive to raise funds for them, and we saw this as another great opportunity to support a program that gets food to the people that need it the most.”
The bag program has been very successful in the Scranton-Wilkes Barre area.
“We don’t know what to expect the first time through,” Clemson said, “but we will continue to work on improving this event, and expand it to other areas, and work hard to promote it in the future.”
The Great Tamaqua Soup Sale continues to Sunday. Twelve soups made by Tamaqua churches, civic groups and restaurants have been on sale online since Oct. 6. Search
“Tamaqua Hunger Campaign” for a link to the online soup sale. Soup pickup is from 9 to 11 a.m. on Oct. 25 at St. John XXIII Catholic Church’s social hall on Pine Street.
Upcoming campaign events include “Dine Out against Hunger” days on Oct. 29 and 30 when participating Tamaqua eateries donate a portion of their proceeds to the hunger campaign. A list of participants will be announced closer to the event dates.
The hunger campaign ends Nov. 2 with the 14th annual Tamaqua Community Hunger Walk. Individuals and teams are invited to participate. The walk begins at 2 p.m. from the Tamaqua Community Art Center. Registration is at 1:30 p.m. Registration forms and walk details are available on the campaign website.
Organizations or individuals collecting food items during October can contact campaign volunteer Paulette Lacrosse at 570-926-4698 to have the items picked up and distributed to community food pantries.
The campaign is a project of the Tamaqua Area Faith Fellowship Network, a nonprofit organization of lay members of area churches which operates under the umbrella of the Tamaqua Area Community Partnership.