Local Food

By BRENDAN KIRBY Staff Writer A local food bank's holiday donation drive remains far short of its goal, which is likely to mean it will have fewer bags of groceries to distribute to the dozens of outreach agencies it serves across the Tri-State area. Food Resources Inc., a nonprofit charity in the Hagerstown Industrial Complex, set a goal of 60,000 pounds of food. But with less than a week remaining in the United Way agency's Bags of Plenty campaign, Executive Director Jim Mobley said he doubts giving will even reach the food bank's 30,000-pound minimum goal.

While the rest of the schools in Franklin County closed on Monday to observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Greencastle-Antrim High School students put King's legacy into action. G-AHS civics teacher Ellen Kirkner spearheaded a schoolwide service project to collect canned and nonperishable food for several local food pantries. “We're honoring Dr. King by contributing to a project that helps others, and that was really part of his emphasis in his life,” Kirkner said. Senior Nathan Hykes said King stood for racial equality, as well as economic equality.

St. Mary Catholic School students carry boxes of food to be taken to the St. Mark's Food Bank. Students brought in 1,020 items.

WILLIAMSPORT -- Clothing drives are not a novel idea. But the recipients of a yearlong clothing drive spearheaded by St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Williamsport were unusual. They were not children, adults or even people at all. They were scarecrows. St. Andrew member Jeff Stearns headed up scarecrow-making Saturday at the annual Harvest Hoedown at Byron Memorial Park in Williamsport. Stearns said the congregation had been gathering clothes since last year's event.

The Green Sanctuary Natural Foods Cooperative Buying Club was what happened when a bunch of Washington County moms got fed up with driving to D.C. for groceries. Five years later, they say they’ve got more organic goods in their cupboard and more money in their wallets thanks to Green Sanctuary. The Hagerstown-based food-buying club affords members access to the same distributors that deliver goods to The Common Market, Whole Foods and other organic grocers out of Washington County’s reach.

Boy Scout Troop 252, based at Church of Christ at Hagerstown Church, participated in the fall Scouting for Food campaign during the weekends of Oct. 22 and 29. Troop members collected donations from local residents and then delivered 200 pounds of nonperishable food to the food pantry at Church of Christ at Hagerstown Church and 50 pounds to the Southern County Food Bank at Trinity Lutheran Church in Boonsboro.

There's no such thing as a free meal, but some restaurants are offering customers something for nothing — if they're able to eat that something in less than an hour. Pounds and pounds and pounds of that greasy, cheesy something. What would you do for a free meal? Freddie Keyes was willing to try The Burkinator, a burger monster dreamed up by Charlie Burkett, owner of Burkett's Deli in downtown Hagerstown. Burkett presents what seems like a straight-forward promo: If you finish The Burkinator, a side of chili cheese fries and a beverage in 30 minutes or less, you don't have to pay for it and you get your mug on the deli's wall and a T-shirt that reads "I sunk the Burkinator sub. " But that Burkinator is 12 inches long and made with six, one-third-pound-beef patties covered with slices of cheddar cheese and topped with four slices of thick-cut bacon.

Looking for local food producers so you can buy locally grown food such as produce, meats and dairy products? During farmers market season, several local producers sell their products at markets such as Washington County Farmers Market at Prime Outlets at Hagerstown or the Shepherdstown (W.Va.) Farmers Market. Several also sell their wares at their farms or through a community-supported agriculture program (CSA) in which members pay a fee and receive a bag or box of produce each week.

Food Resources of Washington County recently received more than $11,000 from Martin's Food Markets' annual Bag Hunger campaign. Other local recipients from the campaign were the Western Maryland Food Bank, which received more than $7,000, and Loaves and Fishes of Martinsburg, W.Va., which received more than $4,000. Martin's Food Markets and Giant Food Stores will donate $500,000 to fight hunger through the Bag Hunger campaign. During the two-week in-store campaign from Sept.