SAFFORD — Thousands of pounds of non-perishable food items made their way to Our Neighbor’s Farm and Pantry on Tuesday, courtesy of the Double R Communications Elementary School Food Drive.
“We’ve had so much generosity from the community this year; it’s wonderful,” said Dana Larchick with Our Neighbor’s Farm and Pantry. “It just means that we’re going to be able to provide for the community even better than typically.”
Final tally was 23,200 pounds of non-perishable food items donated, almost double the amount donated last year.
Each class in the Gila Valley’s elementary schools was challenged to bring in the most cans of food. The class at each school to donate the most won a Dominos’ pizza party, cupcakes from Cakes With TLC, a trophy from Trophies N’ Tees and a visit from the LifeNet helicopter.
The winning classes were:
● Mrs. Allred’s class at Thatcher Elementary — 3,155 cans
● Mrs. Castro’s class at Lafe Nelson — 1,342 cans
● Ms. Evans’ class at Ruth Powell — 1,174 cans
● Mrs. Dillman’s class at Solomon Elementary — 722 cans*
● Mrs. Jackson’s class at Dorothy Stinson — 584 cans
● Miss Nora’s class at TLC — 500 cans
● Ms. Fox’s class at Thatcher Primary — 352 cans
● Mr. Kelvin’s class at Dan Hinton — 350 cans
● Mrs. Jarvis’ class at Discovery Plus Academy — 228 cans
● Mrs. Willis’s class at Pima Elementary — 215 cans
* Eighth year in a row to win at Solomon Elementary
Mt. Graham Regional Medical Center also participated with an employee food drive that contributed an additional 1,000 cans of food.
Sponsors for the Double R Communications Elementary School Food Drive included LifeNet, Domino’s Pizza, Cakes with TLC, Trophies N’ Tees, Sparklight, Mack’s Auto Supply, Valley Furniture, Mt. Graham Regional Medical Center, Graham County Chamber of Commerce and United Way of Graham and Greenlee Counties.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 3:17 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2021, to include the donations by Mt. Graham Regional Medical Center employees.
