Community invited to shop for donations during 10th annual Supermarket Sweep

 

WARSAW, Ind.—Grace College student volunteers are inviting the community to participate in its 10th annual “Supermarket Sweep” on October 30.

The college partners with Mission Point Community Church each year to collect items from a grocery store to donate to local organizations.

Director of Student Involvement at Grace College, Kearstin Criswell, is hoping that this year will be “record-breaking.”

“This event is important in just remembering that we are a neighbor, that we live in a community where we have neighbors and at different times we have different needs and sometimes that need could be food,” Criswell said.

Volunteers are providing grocery lists to shoppers at Owen’s Market, located at 2211 E. Center Street in Warsaw, from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on October 30.

“Everyone is invited to attend, you just show up to the store. Once they walk into the store they will be greeted by a volunteer who will hand them a list of all of the specific needs that the food banks have asked for. They can shop, drop them off to our volunteers and we can box them up for them,” Criswell said.

Shoppers can purchase items on the list and volunteers will collect the items to donate to Fellowship Missions, Our Father’s House, Combined Community Services, the Salvation Army and Heartline Pregnancy Center.

Students also compete on teams during the event, shopping for donation items while competing for prizes in categories such as most money spent, the most money saved and the most community or staff members present. The event is modeled after the old game show.

The “Supermarket Sweep” in 2018 raised more than $23,000 worth of food and products in 11 hours, including 11,015 diapers and 17,020 pounds of food.

The donations last year reached over 900 families in Kosciusko County.

“My hope for this event is that people remember the excitement of it, especially our college students, but anyone that attends, and to remember that we can do this any day of the week,” Criswell said. “When we go shopping, if there’s margin in our budget, we always have the option to buy a few extra things and to just drop them off to a place we know it’s needed.”

Video of event courtesy of Grace College and Mission Point Community Church