Members of the Merrill Octagon Club spent Saturday collecting donations to the food pantry at Merrill’s grocery stores. Students asked shoppers at Drew’s Piggly Wiggly and Dave’s County Market to consider donating items and ended up hauling 1,850 pounds of food to the Merrill Community Food Pantry.
Saturday’s large collection will count toward the Merrill club’s total in a district-wide competition among Octagon Clubs to raise donations for food pantries. Since the competition started in November 2013, the Merrill club has now collected more than 3,350 pounds of food.
The club is collecting donations through Peyton’s Promise, an organization started eight years ago by then-eight-year-old Peyton Medick of Weston. Peyton, now a high school student herself, came to Merrill to speak to the Octagon Club about her efforts to collect food pantry donations.
Peyton’s Promise is a cause supported by the Optimist Club. The Octagon Club is the youth affiliate group of the Optimists.
The results of the food collection competition will be revealed at the district conference on April 26.