GRAND CHUTE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – What started out as a goal of one thousand items in 2019, has become a community-wide operation for a pair of Fox Valley teens.
Over the years, 16-year-old Macy Hartjes and 15-year-old Gavin Wiese have collected thousands of non-perishable food items for the St. Joseph Food Program.
“We heard that St Joe’s was low on food, and so we were like ‘what can we do to help?'” said Hartjes.
“We’ve just carried it on ever since and it’s just grown and grown since our first year,” added Wiese.
This year’s drive began last month.
The pair has food collection sites across the Fox Cities.
“So that’s where like a lot of our friends, our family, schools, daycares, some businesses were drop off locations,” said Jessie Hartjes, Macy’s mother.
One-by-one, Macy and Gavin, along with family and friends, were packing up one last shipment of food items on Sunday, November 12th.
“We had one pickup already from St. Joe’s a few weeks ago,” said Macy Hartjes. “So some of our food is already gone there, and this is like our other half that’s getting donated.”
What started in 2019 has grown each year.
In 2022, they reached their goal of 10,000 items.
This year, they’ve already reached 16,000 items and counting.
They’ve also been taking donations, including one thousand dollars from U.S. Venture.
Gavin and Macy’s mothers both say they’re extremely proud of their children.
“You can just impact change, and it might be on a small level or a bigger level, but, you know it doesn’t matter the age, you can be impactful and I think that is like proven through this,” said Jessie Hartjes.
“Can’t say enough about what they’ve done together and all the support of our friends and family,” said Rachel Wiese, Gavin’s mother.
St. Joseph’s will be picking up the shipment sometime this week.
Last year, St. Joe’s distributed more than 2.7 million pounds of food.
It served nearly 2,000 families.
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