Northern Utah shows its big heart with food drive

Intermountain Catholic

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Marcy Valdez (center), director of Catholic Community Services Joyce Hansen Hall Food Bank and Brad Drake, CCS executive director, thank Polk Elementary students for their participation in the "Who Has the Biggest Heart" food collection campaign.

OGDEN — In February, Catholic Community Services Joyce Hansen Hall Food Bank of Northern Utah set out to determine "Who Has the Biggest Heart" by challenging the community to donate items to help fill empty shelves at the food bank.

"This was the first agency-driven food drive and it was a lot of fun," said Marcie Valdez, director of the CCS Joyce Hansen Hall Food Bank. "We collected 30,000 pounds less this year than last year during the Christmas holidays. I started to worry that we wouldn’t have enough food to get us through to the Boy Scout Food Drive on March 26. We literally counted how many bins of food we had in the warehouse compared to how many days we would be distributing food to clients, and there were more days than food."

The name of the food drive was conceived because Valentine’s Day is in February so "Who has the Biggest Heart" was appropriate said Lauren McCarty, CCS public relations and marketing associate. "We had a lot of business that came through at the last minute," she added.

"The community really responded," Valdez agreed. "We had four banks and both McKay Dee Hospital and Ogden Regional Medical Center who participated. We went to both the Ogden School District and the Weber School District, and about 12 schools participated."

Of all the participants, Polk Elementary School had the biggest heart.

"What was wonderful is Ogden School District thought it would be nice to give us a $500 donation rather than reward the kids for helping others," Valdez said. "We presented the students with their award and received our check."

"You give these kids a challenge and they go the extra mile," said Steve Merkley, Polk Elementary principal. "For one week we had food barrels in the hallways and had a competition between all classrooms to see who could bring in the most food. The fifth-grade class brought in the most food and was rewarded with a pizza party. One Polk sixth-grade girl brought in at least 100 pounds of food herself and was invited to the pizza party. We still have people bringing food in for CCS."

"Bank of Utah was the winning bank and also surprised us with a gift of $500," Valdez said. "They brought in over 2,000 pounds of food."

Saint Joseph Elementary School also was recognized for collecting over 5,000 pounds of food in its Souper Bowl of Giving campaign, which ended in February. "This is a family affair that brought in 10,598 canned and dry good food items in five days," said Danielle Falcione, Saint Joseph special events coordinator. "The 7th- and 8th-grade classrooms brought in more than 1,300 food items."

"All together we collected nearly 18,000 pounds of food for the Biggest Heart food drive, which really helped us with the shortfall," Valdez said. "We serve 1,500 families every month and distribute about 200,000 pounds of food per month. We have seen a 30 percent increase every year and an average of 100 new families who apply for a food card every month. About 22 percent of our food comes from community food drives, and we are always in need of volunteers to help sort the food we receive. "

Joyce Hansen Hall Food Bank also will benefit from contributions that Boy Scouts collect on March 26. "We rely on the Boy Scout Food Drive," Valdez said. "We are hoping for at least 90,000 pounds of food at our pantry in Ogden, and more statewide because we need to collect enough food to last until the holidays."