Store patrons were given lists of nonperishable items to consider purchasing.

Haywood Rotary Club volunteers manned the Canton Ingles location, and Waynesville and Waynesville Sunrise Rotary were located at the Russ Avenue Ingles. Haywood County School buses were at both locations. By the end of the day, both buses were completely filled. George Marshall, President of Haywood Rotary and project organizer said, “I am confident that there was in excess of $10,000 in food items on those two buses.”

Ron Tingle, Waynesville Rotary project coordinator, said their bus was filled and even had two shopping carts donated after it left.

There was a total of about 25 Rotary volunteers at the two Ingles locations. The buses were secured at the School Bus Garage and offloaded by transportation personnel at the schools’ food pantry located at the old Bethel Elementary School. Michelle Mull, a veteran of Haywood Schools social work said, “We are very thankful for the donated food. We were down to only two boxes of food for distribution for food insecure families. We feel very grateful for such a big donation of food again from Rotary. We social workers are thrilled to have full shelves for our families again”.

The three local Rotary clubs collaborated on a similar food drive with Ingles in 2020. In addition, the clubs held a school supply drive in August at Walmart.

“We are three separate clubs, but we share the philosophy of Service Above Self,” stated Marshall.