The Wading River Fire Department delivered a busload of food to to six different area churches and food pantries yesterday, concluding the department’s Christmas Holiday Stuff-a-Bus food drive.
“The response from the community was fantastic. I think it’s the most food we’ve ever collected,” said Capt. Tom Whelan, who ran the “Stuff-A-Bus” campaign this year.
Whelan thanked the members who spent many hours standing outside the King Kullen supermarket in Wading River to collect donated nonperishables.
“One of the things that kept us going was the occasional person who said that they wish they could donate, but that they were going through tough times and they were the ones that needed the food for their families,” Whelan said.
A bus lent to the fire department by First Student Bus Co. was parked in the fire department parking lot to store the donated groceries until the food drive ended.
Volunteer firefighters and students from the department’s Explorer program delivered the majority of the food to St. John The Baptist Roman Catholic Church, St. Anselm’s Episcopal Church, North Shore United Methodist Church and Saints Peter & Paul Roman Catholic Church, with additional donations going to the Trinity Evangelical Church in Rocky Point, and Living Water Full Gospel Church in Riverhead.
“The fire department is overwhelmed by the generosity of the residents of Wading River,” WRFD president Mike Hammer said.
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