For the second year in a row STL Sports Page and our friends who follow us– YOU– are joining together with a few local food outlets to help people in the Greater St. Louis Area with food insecurities.

Thank you to everyone who gets involved. We have no idea how this will go. Will we be swamped? Or will we not get as many. Whatever happens we will do our best to help with this very serious problem in St. Louis: hunger.

We can do this food drive using two of our pillars: Do Good and Have Fun. We will be having a work day to organize the food, pack it up and take it to the food pantries and the dates will be announced soon.

We’ve already got people and companies showing generosity and wanting to help. Our first donor is Taylor Roof Company, Jim Taylor, Inc, in Lebanon, Illinois. We are thankful for one of their employees, Mark Marshall who came to us and organized the food drive for their company.  Mark delivered the food collected to Rob Rains this past week.

He told his company about wanting to do a food drive and they got on board. Julia Yank, the President of Jim Taylor, Inc. said the company was happy to do it.

Thank You Taylor Roofing, Jim Taylor, Inc.

The company set up a table and they along with other employees dropped off canned good and other non-perishable items to us. We hope others will follow Taylor Roof’s lead and join in.

“Whether you join our efforts or help another organization that is collecting food, we hope that all over St. Louis people are donating to food pantries,” said Rob Rains, Editor at STL Sports Page.com.

Mike Rains adds, “There is a great need at all times of the year, but especially now. We appreciate all the sponsors and fans who joined us last year, and we hope they will get on board again this year.”

We have had a donor come forth to donate backpacks and we plan to give the families who receive our meals backpacks with food in them. Our lower-income families in Rainbows for Kids (families of children with cancer) will get first choice of the bags and then we will donate them to several charities in te Greater St. Louis Area.

We are basically trying to help anyone in the Greater St. Louis Area who needs our help and we plan to do it through the outlets we selected. If you know of a family in need, and you are part of our STL Sports Page Newsletter Community please contact us and we can help them get a backpack full of food for a holiday meal.

In planning what we want to put in the bags, we are taking into consideration that someone may not have a refrigerator so we are going for things that don’t take eggs (like bread sources that will last a long time and not get squished: Bisquick  mix or canned bread)

We also know some families would love to make a cake for the holidays so we want to also be able to offer a cake mix and canned icing. Though the Betty Crocker cake mixes call for eggs there are ways you can make the cake without eggs.

We plan to make at least two drop-offs to the food pantries, one in time for Thanksgiving  (and Hanukkah) and one in time for Christmas.

Other items beside food:

We will also deliver tooth brushes, toothpaste, personal items, shampoo, soap, and diapers.

How you can get involved:

Option #1- Choose items from list and drop off

Choose any items from our list of preferred items and buy a few items. Drop them off at one of our drop-off points.

Option#2- “Fill-A-Bag” —

Buy one of each of the preferred items and put in a bag and deliver.

The complete bag is:

Canned ham

Box of Mashed Potatoes, can of gravy

Can of green beans

Can of corn

Can of fruit cocktail

Can of Danish cookies

Bread entree– either can of bread (they sell it on Amazon) or  box of Bisquick since it doesn’t need eggs or milk.

Yellow cake mix and one can of chocolate icing.)

Option #3- Buy things off of our Amazon Wish List

For Amazon Wish List: Email: Rains@STLSportsPage.com

Option #3- Buy items in bulk.

Example: Amazon sells Betty Crocker Yellow Cake in packages of 12 and icing in packages of eight. Or you could get it at Sams or Costco and drop it off at one of our drop-off points. One package of anything in bulk would be helpful.

Drop-Off Points

Thanks to these companies who offered to help with the food drive. If your company would like to get on board, let us know, or if you can collect cans yourself, you can bring them to one of the drop-off points.

Norrenberns Lumber and Hardware

Special thanks to Patrick Bruce, owner of Norrenberns Hardware.

Norrenberns Lumber and Hardware has participated with us in canned food drives in the past and as soon as we sent the call out to them, Patrick and Steve Bruce immediately responded. They will have a big box in their store.

If you ever need any type of lumber or hardware check them out as they have great personal service.  Norrenberns is located at 10500 Tesshire Dr, St. Louis, MO 63123 (off Tesson Ferry Rd. between Lindbergh and Gravois)

MB Health Insurance Agency

MB Health Insurance Agency is also helping sponsor the food drive. Mike Butz and his group, including Kim Besterfield are all very community-minded and they love to get out in the community and help others. They will have a  box in their office.

Meanwhile if you have any questions about insurance they will be glad to answer. Mike really knows a lot about Obamacare. Check out MB Insurance.

They are at 9700 Mackenzie in an office building near Reavis. Walk in the front door and MB’s office is at the end of the hall to the right.

Gene-Del Printing

Last year Gene-Del Printing was a drop-off point for us and we appreciate them jumping on board. They will have a box in their lobby in which to drop off the food drive items.

If  you ever need printing, they do everything from programs, to holiday cards to yard signs to… well you name it, they print it. We appreciate Keith Dodel, Brian Dodel and Eric Dodel for getting on board. Check them out: Gene-Del Printing.

Gene-Del Printing is at 9019 Manchester Rd, St. Louis, MO 63144 in Brentwood.