The Salvation Army and Hy-Vee are donating groceries to 400 families in the RPS district

ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – A partnership between The Salvation Army of Rochester and Hy-Vee distributed 400 bags of Thanksgiving groceries to families in need in the Rochester Public School District.

On Monday morning, Hy-Vee employees delivered these shopping bags to the RPS Facilities Services Center. The contents of the bags include two cans of vegetables, two boxes of Jell-O, a five-pound bag of potatoes, a bag of cookies, and a meat product certificate and the family’s choice of dinner rolls for use at the local Hy-Vee store’s restaurant.

“We started this back on Thanksgiving 2020.” Hy-Vee District Manager Chad Hartogh said. “It was the middle of a pandemic. This has been a very difficult time for many different people for many different reasons. We have identified a need in our community and we don’t know what better way for Hy-Vee to give back to the community than to maintain something like this. The holidays can be a stressful time.”

According to Hartogh, the Salvation Army and Hy-Vee have worked together on many charitable projects: including the Red Kettle Campaign. He said the Salvation Army has connected the company with RPS and 400 identified families.

“This is just one way we can say ‘Happy Thanksgiving’ to the 400 families we know could benefit from it,” Hartogh said. “There are probably others who could do it too. So we’re going to keep trying to do that for Rochester as long as we do business in this city, because that’s what Hy-Vee has always done and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”

Find stories like this and more in our applications.