Spiritwood Station contractors organize heavy-duty food drive

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John M. Steiner / The Sun Dee Pickering, an organizer of the Spiritwood Station Contractors Food Drive, stands among some of the large crates of food Tuesday that will be delivered to the Community Action Food Pantry.
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Submitted photo Members of the Spiritwood Station work force gather for a photo to show their support for a local food drive.

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Area residents new to town are holding a fundraiser as a way to say “thank you” to the people who welcomed them here.

The 460 employees working at Great River Energy’s Spiritwood Station construction site are raising money and non-perishable food items for Community Action’s food pantry. As of Wednesday, the five crafts on the project — administrators, pipe fitters, iron workers, boilermakers/millwrights and civil crew — had raised about $1,800 in cash and collected more than 4,000 food items, said Dee Pickering, administrator of document control.

Pickering, originally of Eagle Grove, Iowa, moved to the Jamestown area about two years ago.

Like many of the employees working at the station, Pickering missed home, she said. So she brought a little of her hometown to Jamestown and held a fundraiser similar to the ones she organized as a Catholic Daughter in Iowa.

Other employees followed, she said, because they wanted to give to community members who had helped the construction workers find places to live and made them feel a part of the area.

“We just like putting back into the community,” she said.

The employees had other reasons too.

“To be able to go home and say that you did something good for somebody that needed it,” she said.

And need is something that’s higher than usual at Community Action’s food pantry, said Kathy Williams, executive director of Community Action Program.

Last year, the food pantry distributed about 80 food baskets per month. This year, the pantry is distributing about 100 each month.

Community Action relies on food and cash donations for the food pantry, Williams said.

The organization’s budget pays for staffing, overhead expenses and some food items, but the remainder of the expenditures — representing about 75 percent of all monies spent on the food pantry — come from donations, Williams said.

So the craftsmen at Spiritwood Station started an in-house competition to see which craft could collect the most money and canned goods.

In some drives, donors give a few cans or maybe a full grocery bag. At Spiritwood Station, employees donated by the case.

Cardboard boxes of macaroni and cheese, ramen noodles and other items rested in wooden crates Tuesday beneath bar graphs indicating which craft had collected the most.

“These gentlemen are pretty much running neck and neck with each other,” Pickering said.

By the end of the week, the winning craft receives the honor of bragging rights — at least until the next competition.

Last year, the employees donated games, dolls, bikes and other items to the Toys for Tots fundraiser in Jamestown. The employees may collect donations for Toys for Tots again this holiday season, Pickering said.

Employees at Spiritwood Station expect to collect items through the week and deliver them on Monday.

Williams said Community Action seeks volunteers to help with sorting, shelving and packaging items throughout the year.

Sun reporter Katie Ryan can be reached at 701-952-8454

or by e-mail at kryan@jamestownsun.com

Tags: local news, great river energy, food drive, news, gre, spiritwood, food