By VERNON ROBISON
Moapa Valley Progress
It was Superbowl weekend and Lin’s Marketplace in Overton was doing a brisk business as is usual at this time of year. Local customers were stocking up on all the supplies needed for the big game. But on Saturday, many shoppers were also picking up a few extra items for a good cause.
The Young Farmers and Ranchers (YF&R) organization of the Clark County Farm Bureau was out in force on Saturday in their annual effort to restock the shelves of the Cappalappa Family Resource Center food pantry and make sure that local families in need stay fed.
It was the YF&R ‘Harvest For All’ food drive which takes place every year on Super Bowl weekend. Volunteers set up a booth outside both doors at Overton Lin’s Market to encourage shoppers to donate nonperishable food items to the local pantry on their way in, and collect the donations on the way out.
All three of the Young Farmers and Rancher members who were gathering the food on Saturday were from Las Vegas. But they all made the tip out to Overton to put on the event.
“Most of our membership is out here in Moapa Valley,” explained YF&R volunteer Sarah Stallard. “That is why we are doing it here. This food drive has long been kind of an established tradition here at Lin’s.
But it just happened that this year none of the Moapa Valley members were able to be here to do this. So we decided to come out and keep things alive. It is just a way for us to give back.”
As shoppers entered the store they were each handed a small slip of paper containing a list of items identified as most needed at the Cappalappa Food Bank. While they shopped, the customers could then pick an item or two from the list and donate them on their way out of the store.
The drive went on from 10 am until about 2 pm. The small group was able to collect a lot of food items in that time. In the end, the group collected more than 300 pounds of food donations for Cappalappa.
“People have been very generous and have donated items,” said YF&R member and volunteer Katie Combs. “This is a great community and there have been a lot of people bringing a lot of stuff out to us. It has been a great success!”
