Wheatland Electric’s annual Cram the Van food drive has, once again, smashed previous collection records, raising a total of 54,599 pounds for a dozen local food banks, sponsors said. 

That includes 19,267 pounds of food for the Community Food Bank of Barton County ($1 donation = 1 pound of food).  

Most of this year’s donation collection in Great Bend is attributed to the efforts of 10 local schools which participated in a friendly food drive competition during October and together collected a record-breaking 15,280 pounds of food. 

Students from the top four participating schools – Jefferson Elementary School, Central Kansas Christian Academy, Golden Belt Home Educators, and Lincoln Elementary School – were together awarded $1,500 in cash prizes from Gifting Forward, a local foundation, for their collection efforts. 

In addition to the school competition, additional can and cash donations were collected from the Great Bend Alive Final Friday on Sept. 30, the local office, and monetary donations made online. 

All cash and can donations were delivered by Wheatland employees and trustees right before the Thanksgiving holiday. 

At the start of this fall, Wheatland sought to “Think BIG!” and make this year’s Cram the Van its biggest, brightest, and best year yet. This year’s collection – just over 27 tons – is an 18% increase over last year’s collection (44,576 pounds).  

This brings the combined nine-year food drive total to 226,908 pounds, or just over 113 tons of food. In 2014, the inaugural year, the food drive raised 6,615 pounds of food.

This year’s “Think BIG!” campaign was comprised of 10 in-person donation events across the service area during September through November.

During this time, Wheatland employees traveled hundreds of miles in their big red van to collect both cash and can donations at local events, where cooperative employees and other volunteers grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for co-op members as a way of saying thank you.

Other communities

The cooperative also coordinated additional friendly school competitions across three other area school districts (Holcomb USD 363, Scott County USD 466, and Conway Springs USD 356), which helped raise several thousand more pounds of food across these communities. Winners from these additional school competitions received cash prizes from Wheatland Electric for their efforts. 

Along with in-person events, school competitions, and an online donation campaign, additional dollars were raised through the fourth annual Co-ops Care Charity Golf Tournament, held this past September. 

Thanks to the generosity of a full tournament of golfers, vendors, sponsors, and other supporters (including cooperative employees and volunteers) $20,000 was raised in proceeds from the annual charity event, which serves as the kick-off to Cram the Van every fall. 

Thanks to co-op members, sponsors, schools, communities, volunteers, and other partners, Wheatland  donated non-perishable food items and cash to the following additional food banks, just ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday ($1 donation = 1 pound of food):

Ministerial Alliance, Scott City – 4,645 pounds.

United Methodist Food Pantry and Caldwell Food Bank, Caldwell – 2,775 pounds.

Conway Springs Mission Mart (Cardinals Care), Conway Springs – 3,489 pounds. 

Emmaus House and Genesis Family Health, Finney County – 3,577 pounds.

Harper Mission Mart, Harper – 2,591 pounds.

Horns for Hope c/o USD 363, Holcomb – 6,753 pounds.

Wichita County Food Bank, Leoti – 3,833 pounds.

Hamilton County Food Pantry, Syracuse – 3,354 pounds.

Greeley County Food Bank, Tribune – 4,315 pounds.