Our Feed the Hungry Can Contest has ended, and we are so grateful to all of you who turned in cans and other non-perishable food to be donated to our local food pantry.  The need is so great, especially now with many people unemployed or under-employed in this economy, and the food pantry has been getting more demand than they can meet.  It is wonderful that all of you who turned in grocery store gift cards, cans, and other foods are making a difference for the poor in our area!

This was not only a wonderful way to help the hungry in our community, but it was also a project that our oldest son got very excited about and involved in.  He helped stack and count cans, went can shopping with the gift cards to get more non-perishable food, and would ask all the time if any more food came in.  This was not just a contest, but also an important lesson for a young boy about being grateful for what you have and sharing those blessings with others.  As a mom, I am so proud of my son and the heart he showed in all of this.  It makes me very happy that our contest was a success!

In the past 4 weeks, we collected a total of TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY ONE food items that we will be taking to the food pantry!  We had 188 cans of food, 10 boxes of pasta, 8 jars of peanut butter (with 1 jar of jelly!), 5 boxes of rice, 4 boxes of mac and cheese, 3 boxes of cereal, and a variety of other foods as well!

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And now to announce the winner…

Jamie and Tristan turned in one hundred and one cans and are the WINNERS of our contest!  They have won a free session that they can use any time before February 1st and a free 8×10 gallery wrap from that session, a value of over $200!  When they have their session, any profits from prints or products that are ordered will be donated to Feeding America, the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity.  Congratulations Jamie and Tristan, and thank you for all of the cans!

And everyone who participated received .40¢ in credit for every item donated which can be used toward any session or product.  We have given away almost $100 in gift cards from this contest!

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Once again, to everyone who was a part of this, we want to send you a big…

Here we are doing our final count:

Some of you have asked if you can still turn in food or grocery gift cards even though the contest has ended.  The answer is YES, OF COURSE!  We donate food to the local food pantry almost every week and would be happy to drop off any of your donations as well.  In fact, our son’s class is now having a canned food drive and is collecting cans and non-perishable food items from now until mid-December!  If you didn’t get a chance to turn in any food yet, you can still do so now!