Shopping Frenzy: Event helps stock WHIP's pantry

Three shopping carts were filled to nearly overflowing with cans of green beans, boxes of Hamburger Helper and other foods.

The carts were the result of five frantic minutes of grocery shopping Feb. 9 at Kroger in the Cherry Tree Shopping Center.

Hopewell Grange sponsored the Shopping Cart Frenzy as a way to generate donations to WHIP, the local food pantry.

“Wow! This is awesome,” said Ron Root from WHIP who was on-hand to pick up the donations. “I didn’t know you could fit that much into a cart.”

Hopewell Grange’s Shopping Cart Frenzy brought in 457 items for the food pantry and the final receipts showed a total of $544.64 spent for food.

Kathy Beebe and her New 4 You team joined the two Hopewell Grange teams in the event.

“We heard about the event and thought it would be a lot of fun to join,” Beebe said. “It’s raising money for a great cause and we wanted to help out.”

New 4 You went with a Hawaiian themed cart while the junior Grange club went with a winter friends theme and the adult Grange club’s cart was decked out in poodle skirts and records for a 1950s theme.

Gary Hecathorn, president of the local Hopewell Grange chapter, said the idea for the shopping race was taken from granges in northern Illinois.

“A lot of people forget about the food pantry after the holiday season so we thought this would be a good time to help WHIP,” Hecathorn said. “And we were looking for a fun way to bring in the food and bring some attention to an organization that does a lot of good in the community.”

Hecathorn said he is hopeful Hopewell Grange will continue to organize the Shopping Cart Frenzy.

“It would be great if we could see this thing grow to many more teams,” Hecathorn said.

Each team pushing a cart is responsible for paying for the food in their cart. The junior club raised money through the year to help pay for their cart.

Don Emmons, manager at Kroger, said the race through the aisles was a welcomed disruption.

“It creates excitement among the other customers and the kids are having a blast with this,” Emmons said.