Letter: Hastings Family Service appreciates your support

To the editor,

Every summer we are blessed with people in the community who go above and beyond to support Hastings Family Service.

For example, Dakota Electric Association held its annual Member Appreciation Event at the Minnesota Zoo and collected food to distribute to food shelves in the area. For HFS, this event brought 635 pounds of food to help feed hungry families in the Hastings area.

Employees at Cub Foods in Hastings volunteered their time at special fundraising events throughout June. Overall, the events raised $1,533 for HFS, making a significant impact at HFS because summer is generally a slower time for donations amongst food shelves across the country.

To combat the lull in gifts, Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless offered its third annual $100,000 challenge grant to provide a proportionate matching opportunity for July donations. The community held some great events like the Tour de Vin bike event held at Alexis Bailly Vineyard that raised a total of $875 for HFS. HFS volunteers helped along the bike route and hosted a rest stop at HFS along the way. In addition, the River of Life Church held its annual 10 cent Carnival for kids during Rivertown Days, raising $1,127 for HFS.

Significant support from the United Way of Hastings during July also helped HFS work toward getting more of the matching funds from Open Your Heart. The United Way of Hastings has worked to support the safety net in Hastings and has been a partner to HFS since helping us open our doors in 1970. Although it will take a few months’ time to find out how much of the grant we will receive, we would like to thank the community for stepping up to stretch their dollars in July. Over $41,000 was given in July to help HFS receive a larger portion of the matching grant.

Your efforts big and small make a difference at HFS and we would love to know about them. Please call us at 651-437-7134 if you are hosting a fundraiser for HFS and let us know how we can help you. Please stop in at 301 Second St. E., to see the newly renovated facility or visit www.hastingsfamilyservice.org to learn more about HFS.

Thanks so much for all of your support!

Chris Koop

Executive Director

Hastings Family Service

Tags: letters to the editor, opinion, hastings, minnesota, spiral, local