- May 17, 2024
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WUF Vice President Linda Mahran collects donations outside the Belle Terre Crossing Publix on Friday, Oct. 12. Photo by Paige Wilson
A shopping cart is filled with canned donations from Linda Mahran's volunteer shift. Canned goods are accepted, but not anything in a glass container. Photo by Paige Wilson
Chicks with Cans also collected monetary donations. The money is used to buy food at a reduced rate from Second Harvest Food Bank to then be donated to Feed Flagler. Photo by Paige Wilson
During the month of October, pink isn’t just for breast cancer awareness. It’s also the color of the food-collecting philanthropy “Chicks with Cans” that is run by local nonprofit Women United Flagler.
Volunteers in bright pink shirts stand outside Publix stores in Flagler County for several days in the spring and the fall to collect canned goods and monetary donations for Feed Flagler, an organization that provides Thanksgiving meals to hundreds of families yearly. Over 800 families will receive a box full of festive foods this year.
As WUF Vice President Linda Mahran stood outside the Belle Terre Crossing Publix on the afternoon of Friday, Oct. 12, shoppers stopped on their way out of the store to drop off goods they just bought to donate. Others dropped money into the collection jars. All donations were met with a smile from Mahran.
“I am astounded by the amount of families that are in need in our community,” Mahran said. “And it’s hard to see that need until you hear about all the kids on free lunch at school. You realize how many families are struggling paycheck to paycheck. You don’t even realize people that are homeless because they’re living out of a car and you don’t see it. And this just hurts my heart to see that. So, anything I can do to help people who are struggling, to get back on their feet … that’s why I do it.”
The canned donations from the spring food drive go to Second Harvest Food Bank, but the monetary donations from both spring and fall are used to purchase more food at a reduced rate from Second Harvest Food Bank to then be donated to Feed Flagler, she said.
Each year since 2010, Chicks with Cans has won the Feed Flagler first-place trophy for the most goods collected.
In the fall of 2017, Chicks with Cans collected $7,625 in monetary donations, said WUF President Maureen Walsh.
She added that last year, Chicks with Cans also delivered 589 bags of food from donated canned goods, which is an estimated 3,534 pounds of food, to Feed Flagler. In addition, Chicks with Cans ordered 9,390 pounds of food from Second Harvest Food Bank, totaling $6849.78. This is 9,180 cans of food on five pallets.
The total food donated from Chicks with Cans for the 2017 Feed Flagler drive was about 12,924 pounds, Walsh said.
“After our first weekend, we’re on pace to match 2017 monetary donations,” she said in an email. “Even though we’ve reduced the number of stores where we station volunteers, I’m confident that we’ll match 2017 numbers.”
Chicks with Cans will be collecting goods and money outside the Publix stores located at 4950 Belle Terre Parkway, Palm Coast, and 414 Beach Village Drive, Flagler Beach, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 19, and Saturday, Oct. 20.
For more information, visit https://bit.ly/2QPlDSo.
