Detroit Lakes Lions Raise more than $4,100 & 500 lbs of Food for Food Pantry

DETROIT LAKES (KDLM) – The Detroit Lakes Lions collected more than 500 lbs of food and raised more than $4,100 during a fundraiser for the Backer County Food Pantry, recently.

The Lions encouraged residents to donate during the drive-thru fundraiser on March 20 at the Becker County Fairgrounds.

An all volunteer crew composed of Lions members and a local youth group helped with the event and distributed over 100 coupons donated by the Detroit Lakes Dairy Queen Grill and Chill.

The cash donations were especially helpful at the Pantry. Brad Carlson with the Becker County Food Pantry says a dollar goes a lot farther than you might think at the Food Pantry, “We are getting a lot more product coming in from the government buying up items from restaurants and schools that aren’t being used; the government sells those items to us at 8 cents a pound. We get a wide variety of items, like a 2 pound bag of pistachios that would cost $10-15 at the store – it’s costing us 16 cents.”

The Lions have several additional fundraisers in the works, including collecting aluminum cans at the fairgrounds to raise funds for local projects, selling Geraniums for their Spring fundraiser, and they plan to be running their High Striker game at WE Fest this year.