First United Bank’s recent canned-food drive was a success with approximately 1,200 cans donated and $550 contributed by Pruett’s Food grocery store.
A pallet from Pruett’s was delivered to Hands of Hope Food & Resource Center.
Bailey Terrell, relationship banker at First United, community relations functional manager and the social media ambassador, said the food drive was from Oct. 13 to Nov. 14.
“We had an amazing turnout this year,” Terrell said. “I think we emptied the bucket three or four times just in the main lobby. But everybody was very generous and it’s a great time to be generous. We were able to volunteer at Hands of Hope and help them get all of their food drives organized as well, and so we just had a really good turnout. I’m very excited for it.”
Melissa Patterson, First United Spend Life Wisely ambassador, said some bank employees volunteered to have pies thrown in their faces to raise money.
“We were just really excited to see everybody put the community first this year and recognize that there was a huge need and just help be part of the solution,” Patterson said.
Terrell said, “We’re using our $550 to actually purchase this pallet of food from Pruett’s today and all of it will be delivered to the Hands of Hope pantry, so it stays in our community.”
United Way also was a part of the food drive.
“Our involvement is with the entire community and this time of the year because of the holidays, but mainly because the large food banks that send food down here, this year, they were really low on canned food and so Pruett’s is a very good community partner with United Way, with Hands of Hope and many other people and so today, this is important because believe it or not, people like pork and beans,” said Pam Robinson, UW director. “We have not had any pork and beans in I don’t know when in the big food bank.
“Pruett’s came up with some and so the people are going to get what they want. It’s very serious right now. All of our food banks are low. Now, we just had a big food drive that our partners are Red River Ford, and we got lots of food that we sent to all the food banks in Bryan County.”
