Hickory – In its 26th year, the community and schools came together again to support the 2024 Susan L. Coleman Castle of Cans Food Drive with many donations of cans and collections from its virtual fundraising campaign. All in all, this will provide 8302 pounds, or more than 4 tons of food to meet the hunger needs of our community in the upcoming months. Since 2007, the campaign collections have provided 242,792 pounds or 121.4 tons of food – an amazing effort of the charitable component of the Hickory Oktoberfest!
Castle of Cans chairperson Carleen Crawford expressed her sincere appreciation to everyone who donated, promoted, and has helped. “Our public and private schools, churches and community organizations all did an outstanding job for us to help support our local efforts.”
We are grateful to Food Lion Feeds for its generous donation of pallets of cans and their support since 2015,” Crawford added. Through Food Lion Feeds, the company has donated more than 500 million meals to individuals and families since 2014 and has committed to donating 1 billion more meals by 2025. For more information, visit www.foodlion.com.
We also truly appreciate our 2024 team members for their generous contributions. In the school competition, Hickory Day School was the winner overall, collecting 2165 pounds of cans! St. Stephens High School led the high school competition with 950 pounds, Discovery High School, a first-time participant donated 555 pounds, Startown Elementary took the lead in the elementary division donating 486 pounds followed by Grandview Middle School donating 389 pounds and leading in the middle school competition. Clyde Campbell donated 282 pounds, Arndt Middle donated 153 pounds and River Bend Middle donated 146 pounds. In additional categories, St. Alban’s Episcopal Church donated 317 pounds plus $400 and Atrix Group of Hickory donated 55 pounds. The classroom competitions for pizza parties were won by Mrs. Detter’s 3rd grade class at Startown Elementary and Mr. Mims’ (6th grade) and Mrs. Palmer’s (7th grade) at Grandview (tie). All three classes will receive pizza parties complements of Papa John’s Pizza.
Eight local agencies that feed our neighbors are the campaign recipients: The Corner Table of Newton, Assure Ministries (formerly ECCCM), Exodus Homes, The Family Care Center, Greater Hickory Cooperative Christian Ministries, The Hickory Soup Kitchen, The Salvation Army, and Second Harvest Food Bank.
Castle of Cans is the community service component of Hickory’s Oktoberfest. The annual food drive is sponsored by the Hickory Downtown Development Association and coordinated by St. Alban’s Episcopal Church.
