Businesses provide food boxes for families

Starla Pointer/News-Register##Nicole Abbott of Gormley Plumbing and Bonnie Ingham of Cellar Ridge Construction pack boxes with ham, potatoes, pancake mix and 21 other items for delivery to McMinnville students and their families on Wednesday. Jesse Allen Construction and New Energy Works also contributed to the project.

Volunteers from four local businesses got together this week to stuff boxes with food for needy students and their families.

They packed 48 boxes with ham, cheese, butter, milk, pancake mix, cereal, potatoes, apples, oranges, hot chocolate and other items. Then they delivered most to McMinnville schools, where teachers had identified families that could use some Christmas cheer.

Gormley Plumbing, New Energy Works, Jesse Allen Drywall and Cellar Ridge Construction volunteers also saw to it that three boxes went to the Yamhill County Sheriff’s Office for distribution.

Jesse Allen said he took part in the food box project because he wanted to help children.

“Kids need to eat,” he said, recalling that people sometimes gave things to his own family when he was young, and “that helped a lot.”

Allen now has three older children and two adopted ones, so he has a heart for children, he said. “Kids are important,” he said.