For the City Times

Paper City Savings won the “Most Creative Award” with their “Castle” sculpture. (Contributed Photo)

WISCONSIN RAPIDS – Local food programs in south Wood County received a boost in donations June 14 after the South Wood County Hunger Coalition raised 7,000 pounds of non-perishable food during its annual “United We Can” event.

Six teams competed in the food sculpture contest, with prizes going to:

• Most Creative Award – Paper City Savings Association
• Most Nutritious Award – Domtar
• Community Choice Award – ERCO Worldwide

Other contestants included Aspirus Riverview Hospital, Solarus, and North Central Community Action Program / Boys and Girls Club of the Wisconsin Rapids Area.

Domtar won the “Most Nutritious Award” with their sculpture “No More PINE-ing for Food.” (Contributed Photo)

“Our community was very generous with this year’s food donations,” said Emily Stieve, Community Impact Director for United Way of Inner Wisconsin.  “We were able to provide five food programs with 7,000 pounds of food compared to 6,000 collected last year. Since this event began five years ago, we have leveraged a grand total of 32,000 pounds of food! It’s an amazing accomplishment to achieve for our community. Not only are we helping to keep pantry shelves stocked, we are also able to share information about local food resources and highlight how many people in our community face this challenge.”

Food that was collected was distributed to:

Christian Life Fellowship’s Food Pantry, Rapids Family Backpacks, South Wood Emerging Pantry Shelf, The Family Center and The Neighborhood Table.

To view a photo gallery of the event, visit our website at www.uwiw.org or find us on Facebook. For more information, please contact Emily Stieve at 715-421-0390.