Tabernacle residents host annual food drive
By Katrina Grant
Tabernacle residents Keira and Amber Malone have been organizing food and toy drives for the past several years. This year, the girls held their fourth annual summer food drive and donated a total of 514 pounds to the Food Bank of South Jersey.
“They fell short of their goal of surpassing last year’s total of 525 pounds, but surpassed last year in quantity of items,” Karen Malone, the girls’ mother said in an email. “They are looking forward to their annual winter toy drive this December. Their goal this year is 200 toys. In the past, they helped collect enough toys, food and home items for three families for the holidays, filling our porch.”
The idea for the food drive came from Malone’s youngest daughter four years ago when she was 7-years old.
She wondered why we only did the food drives around the holidays,” Malone said. “She told me that people get hungry all the time, so why shouldn’t we do this at different times. It was a pretty good response from a 7-year-old.”
The Malones had already been doing toy drives for several years before the food drives. The first year that they did the food drive they donated it to the Food Bank of South Jersey. The second year they combined their donations with the Girl Scouts, and their donations went to help families dealing with autism. Last year, the girls set up a table in front of a local store for one day, and this year, they did it for two.
“Five years ago, we heard about a particular family that needed help, so we collected food, toys and bedding,” Malone said. “We also helped a woman that was diagnosed with cancer. The toys that we donate we take to the schools, and they go to local charities.”
The girls were also able to use their food drives for awards in Girl Scouts.
“They didn’t do it for Girl Scouts, but they were able to use them for their awards,” Malone said. “Amber earned her Girl Scout Bronze Award for the 2010 summer food drive, and both girls are working together on earning their Girl Scout Silver Award.”
Malone sees this as something the girls will continue for many years.
“They look forward to this every year,” Malone said. “They make up fliers, put up signs and ride their bikes to pass the fliers out in the neighborhood. They love to go out to the porch to check the box every morning. It’s like Christmas to them, they are so excited when there is a new bag of food for the food drive.”
