For hours on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, sirens alerted Havre residents to what is normally a quiet problem - hunger. The Havre Fire Department sponsors a yearly food drive, Everybody Loves Firefighters, which brought out record numbers of volunteers and brought in record amounts of food this year.
In six hours of work, 120 volunteers traveling in four firetrucks and three ambulances collected 7,894 pounds of non-perishable food, Havre Food Bank manager Donald Bleak said today.
"That's such a big thing," Bleak said.
Last year the food bank collected roughly 6,000 pounds of food, and that included sources in addition to the two-day food drive.
Bleak credits a scheduling change for this year's record success. The food drive is normally held the first week of December, when college students are preparing for finals. Last year only 15 or 20 people, including firefighters, volunteered. This year, he said, there were 40 college students among the 120 volunteers, a number that does not include the firefighters who sponsored the event.
