Community Corner

Local Food Pantry Gets A Boost from Grocery Dash

It's cupboards practically bare, Pilgrim Faith United Church of Christ is invited to Lions Clubs' 'supermarket sweep' to replenish community food pantry.

Inspired by a story in Patch about the Oak Lawn Raiders Social and Athletic Club wanted do something to help.

Enter the Southland's Lions Clubs, who were hosting their first-ever grocery dash, a variation of the old "supermarket sweeps" in the 1950s and 1960s, where crazed couples ran through supermarkets cramming carts with turkeys, steaks, canned goods and TV dinners before the clock ran out. It made for riveting television.

The Oak Lawn Raiders bought ten raffle tickets at $10 a pop. If they held the winning number, they would donate the ticket to which operates a community food pantry.

Find out what's happening in Oak Lawnwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Kharma was with the Raiders. Members held the winning ticket and Pilgrim Faith's pantry coordinator, Russ Pluhar, was the "runner" who got to run through Super Low Foods in Elmwood Park "sweeping shelves" last Saturday.

"The Oak Lawn Raiders bought $100 worth of tickets and Pilgrim Faith was named as the beneficiary," said John Gawal, a member of the Burbank Lions Club. "This was our first time organizing the grocery dash."

Find out what's happening in Oak Lawnwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Pilgrim Faith came in second in the raffle and got six minutes to run through Super Low. It took two cars to bring all the food back to the church.

Gawal said the Lions expected raffle winners to run for their families, but the other ticket winners also designated local food pantries as their beneficiaries.

  • St. Celestine of Elmwood Park pulled the first place ticket in the raffle and collected $1,133 worth of food in an eight-minute dash.
  • Pilgrim Faith collected $1,680 of food goods in six minutes.
  • The Salvation Army came in third and collected $2,279 worth of food in four minutes.

The Lions are considering turning next year's grocery dash into an event for local food pantries and charitable organizations.

Patch suggested that food pantries might want to consider hiring ringers, like the fellow from the Salvation Army whom Gawal said literally swept shelves clean with his arm.

After paying Super Low for the food, the Lions Club chapters in the Southland raised $5,700 that will go to local charities.

Hat tip to Oak Lawn Raiders' member Jim DeMoss for taking the photos and letting Patch know about the grocery dash, and our Burbank and Oak Lawn Lions Clubs.

Oak Lawn's local food pantries can still use residents' help. With the holidays coming up, consider holding a food drive at your school, church, work place or club.


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