Wheatland Elementary delivers for food banks

By Deirdre Mitchell-MacLean Times Contributor

It was another successful season for donations of food stuffs for the Wheatland County Food Bank and the Strathmore and Wheatland County Christmas Hamper Society.
For the fifth year, students at Wheatland Elementary School partnered with Strathmore Ford for the WE Scare Hunger food drive.
“The Grade 6 Student Leadership Council did all of the organizing for this event, including the tallying, sorting and packaging of all donated items,” said Michelle Silver Rushford, associate principal with Wheatland Elementary. “We are excited to share that as of Oct. 31st, our total numbers have reached 2,520 items, filling 93 boxes and weighing over 913 kilograms.”
Tim Dromarsky, general manager at Strathmore Ford said they’re proud of this initiative to give back to the community.
“Kaizen Automotive Group (who owns Strathmore Ford) is very community focused,” he said. “When we first took over the location four years ago, we looked for ways we could give back to the community and we chose to focus on kids. With everything that’s gone on over the past four years, with the economy, we want to help kids so opportunities remain for them.”
Strathmore Ford donated $1,000 towards the hot lunch program at Wheatland Elementary in return for their efforts.
“This was a record year for the WE Scare Hunger program in program,” Dromarsky said. “The 1,343 pounds … of food going to Wheatland County Food Bank and the Strathmore and Wheatland County Christmas Hamper programs – it’s wonderful to see so much community support for them.”
Non-perishable food and cash donations for the food bank are still being accepted at Strathmore Ford until Nov. 8.
Wheatland Elementary will be collecting hygiene and wish list items to donate to the Strathmore and Wheatland County Christmas Hamper Society throughout the month of November.