10th Annual Stuff the Bus food drive hosted

The Cashmere United Methodist Church hosted the 10th Annual Stuff the Bus food drive in the parking lot on Saturday, October 14 from 8:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m.
The Methodist Church, located at 213 South Division Street, accepted both food and cash donations from people.
"It's going well," Claudia Spanjer, the organizer of the event, said on the day donations were made. "The food collection is down a little bit but then we also get cash donations, and the food bank uses those to prepare for the holidays with getting hams and turkeys."
According to Spanjer, the community effort that is put into Stuff the Bus is amazing.
"The food bank apparently is low," Spanjer said. "So this will help and then there's an ongoing food drive at Martin's Market too."
Food from the Methodist church is also distributed to the local food bank about twice a month Spanjer stated.
The bus for the event is provided by Cashmere High School, who delivers the bus to the church's parking lot at about 7:15 a.m.
"The school is so wonderful with this," Spanjer said.
Four high school boys helped out at Stuff the Bus and showed up at the church at 8:00 a.m.
The group of boys consisted of Greg Reinhart, Juan Gil, Ethan Leon and Jalil Rodriguez.
Spanjer shared that last year the food drive collected about $1,500 in cash donations, which was the most money in cash donations that had been taken in.
"Typically, on a food distribution we distribute the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month from 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.," Pam Leighton, the Food Bank Director, said. "We typically serve anywhere from 40 to 55 families each week so that's well over 100 families per month."
Leighton first started up with the food bank over 25 years ago when she began volunteering with it.
"I was starting by volunteering and helping with filling boxes during the holiday seasons and it went from there," Leighton said.
Leighton's late husband was the previous director. Following his passing, Leighton then became the director.