St. Cloud Metro Bus, Royal Tire and Townsquare Media are hosting the Jolly Trolley food drive at participating Coborn’s, Cash Wise and Lunds + Byerly’s stores to help area families this holiday season.
The annual drive benefits local food shelves in the Metro Bus service area. This year’s drive will use a Metro Bus Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)-fueled bus as the collection vehicle. The donations from this year’s drive will again support the Salvation Army, Catholic Charities Emergency Services and Promise Neighborhood food shelves.
“We put the ‘drive’ in this mobile food drive by using one of our clean, quiet CNG buses as a collection point,” said Metro Bus CEO Ryan Daniel.
Look for the Jolly Trolley next week at these locations:
- 4-7 pm Mon. Dec. 11: Coborn’s, located on Cooper Ave., St. Cloud
- 4-7 pm Tue. Dec. 12: Cash Wise East, St. Cloud
- 4-7 pm Wed. Dec. 13: Lunds + Byerly’s, St. Cloud
- 4-7 pm Thu. Dec. 14: Coborn’s, Sauk Rapids
- 4-7 pm Fri. Dec. 15: Coborn’s, located on Pinecone Ave., Sartell
Since 2011, more than 18,000 pounds and almost $10,000 have been collected during this annual winter drive. The cash donations from this year’s drive have the opportunity to be matched through the Skalicky Foundation’s annual Charity Challenge.
“We encourage cash donations because of the matching grant through the Charity Challenge and the food shelves’ access to the Second Harvest food bank, where their dollar has 3-5 times more purchasing power than an individual buying from a grocery store,” said Daniel. “A $10 donation could easily purchase $80 worth of food. Cash donations also allow food shelves to purchase what is most needed when they need it.”
