Schools collecting nonperishables for Thompson Family Food Drive

Just yesterday we were giving you the details about the annual Butte Cares/Harrington Pepsi Helping Hand Clothing Drive which is underway.  Right there in the title is "Harrington Pepsi" who play a huge role in another huge, annual charitable event each year, the Thompson Family Food Drive.

Beginning in 1989 by Jim and Margie Thompson of Thompson Distributing in conjunction with the Butte Emergency Food Bank, the first drive focused on the area near the Thompson Distributing Warehouse which was canvassed by employees and resulted in a few pickup loads of food being collected over the course of the day.  Today's drives, staffed by the Harrington Pepsi crew alongside volunteer firefighters, the 15-90 Search and Rescue crew and hundreds of volunteers average 60,000 pounds of food and around $40,000 in about 3 hours.  Since the drive's inception, they have totaled over 2,305,640 food items and $703,908.00 donated thanks to the generosity of Butte and Southwest Montana.

The drive is set for the first Saturday of December and while your help is needed then, there is a way to help out now with the Butte School District.  Local schools are taking part in a Thanksgiving Food Drive with donations being accepted through November 26th.  Items most needed are nonperishables, toiletries, canned goods and monetary donations.

Help out if you can.  Send your kids to school with some of the needed items or maybe even a neighbor's child with their parents' permission.  If you would like information on how you can donate directly, please contact Kotie Dunmire at (406) 498-0722 or email dunmirekc@bsd1.org.