What started with a single donation of 100 pounds of hamburger has snowballed into a community-wide effort that has now raised over $70,000 for Cloquet area food relief and has been dubbed a “community donation train.”
Cloquet business owner Lenny Conklin was looking for a way to help provide a bit of relief for people who may be struggling to make ends meet as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, so he reached out to the owner of B & B Market in Cloquet, MN, a meat market and catering company, and offered to donate 100 pounds of hamburger for those who may not have the means to pay for it.
Market owner John Lind and Conklin started spreading the word about the donation and soon other businesses and individuals stepped up to make donations, according to a local report on the effort in late March.
After Lind posted about the donation on Facebook, “it just kind of blew up overnight,” he said. People started contacting him on the phone to make donations. “It’s just amazing,” Lind said, “I never thought it would be this big the way it’s gone right now.”
Lind and his wife Kim posted a video on their business Facebook page just last week stating that they’d raised over $57,000 dollars in donations.
However, that total has now been reported to be upped to over $70,000 as of this week.
The donations are being dispersed in the form of groceries to those who need them or to residents who are unable to shop for themselves, as well as gift certificates to help people cover food expenses.
Lind said in a post Wednesday that “the train is not even slowing down!”
Those who wish to donate to the effort can contact the B&B Market directly at 218-879-3555 or stop by in person at 506 Big Lake Rd in Cloquet.
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