Holiday Food Drive to Bolster Holiday Train Donations

A group of Mount Pleasant and Sturtevant residents invites the entire community to its 2012 Holiday Food Drive for the Racine County Food Bank.

The Mount Pleasant-Sturtevant Patch tent will serve as a collection point at Mount Pleasant Village Hall Dec. 10 - 14, 2012.

In 2011, the Holiday Train pulled into Milwaukee instead so a group of residents from both Mount Pleasant and Sturtevant organized a holiday food drive to fill the void. Santa arrived on a fire truck to hand out candy canes to kids of all ages, and the community came out in force to donate over 1,600 pounds of food and more than $1,000 in cash.

CP Rail, recognizing the need for support continued even without the train, also contributed $1,000.

Now, though the Holiday Train returns to Sturtevant on Dec. 8, any cash raised locally will be matched by Canadian Pacific Rail for hurricane relief efforts on the East Coast.

"Canadian Pacific’s contribution to Feeding America for the disaster relief efforts will be above and beyond the donation you make to  your local food bank," the Holiday Train website reads. "Your donation stays with your local food bank but the spirit in which you give will help support our neighbors on the east coast."

So, to make sure our local food bank gets the help it needs, the Mount Pleasant-Sturtevant group is offering a week-long food drive to help bolster the cash and food donations collected at the Holiday Train.

"We are grateful for the support and thank the community for participating in both the Holiday Train and the food drive," said Dan Taivalkoski, executive director of the Food Bank.

Editor's note: This article has been updated to clarify that the collection point for the food drive will be at Mount Pleasant Village Hall only.