Annual Food Drive Set for Sunday

This year will be the 5th annual First Responder food competition held on Sunday, December 6^th, from 11 o’clock a.m. to 4 o’clock p.m. Organized by Beth Riley, who worked for the Banner Churchill EMS crew the food drive has collect over 45,800 pounds of food over the past four years.

All the agencies participating, including the Fallon Police Department, Fallon/Churchill Fire Department, Search and Rescue, the Churchill County Sheriff’s office, Banner Churchill Community Hospital EMS, and the Fallon Shoshone Tribal Police Department will meet on the morning of the 6^th at the Golden Gate Gas Station scales for the weigh in at 10:00 a.m. Each agency brings whatever exciting vehicle will catch people’s attention, and when the weigh in is complete, everyone caravans over to Walmart with sirens blaring and lights flashing.

The teams all station themselves at the various doors and whichever team collects the most food throughout the day, whether it is perishable, or non-perishable will win. At 4 o’clock p.m. everyone caravans back over to the Golden Gate scales and weight again and that’s where Riley says, “We then subtract the current weight from the original weight and that is how we determine a winner.” The teams are not allowed to collect food beforehand. “When we are parked in between the front doors at Walmart people can donate to the agency of their choice, the community member gets to choose,” she said.

Last year during the event, the Care Flight crew actually flew Santa into the event to spend time with local children. That is still a possibility this year, although no one is sure yet due to the COVID restrictions.

At the end of day, after the weigh ins, each of the agencies then travels over to the Out of Egypt food pantry building, backing into the big garage doors and helps unload the food. Last year, Pastor Paul Slaton said the food collected allows the food pantry to feed needy community members for up to six months.

Riley said Walmart has donated materials to make the trophies and the City of Fallon brings heaters to keep everyone warm. Etched in Stone is making the tags for the trophy which the winning agency keeps for a year. “So many people are involved, this is such a great thing the community turns into,” she said.

Last year a total of 19,540 pounds of food was collected. The Fallon/Churchill Fire Department gathered 7,560 for the win, ahead of the Fallon Police Department with 4,560, the Sheriff’s Office with 2,800, Search and Rescue gathered 1,920 pounds, Nevada Highway Patrol with 1,420 pounds, and the Banner Ambulance crew with 1,280 pounds.