“It gets a little heavy by the end,” said Tracy Sterner, who was pulling a wagon to carry food donations. But it was a positive sign for the food pantry.

During this year’s Coming Home Days, members of Lions clubs in southwest Minnesota teamed up with food pantry volunteers to help fight hunger in the Cottonwood area. At the end of the Coming Home Days parade, the Lions and local volunteers brought several boxes of donations back to the food pantry.

Lions club members said they hoped to generate interest in their organization, while at the same time serving the community.

“And we have fun. We always have fun,” one volunteer said.

Photo by Deb Gau After the Coming Home Days parade, Cathy Drager and Tracy Sterner helped sort the non-perishable food items donated by Cottonwood community members.

Community groups and nonprofits are an active part of the fun each year at Coming Home Days. Events like community meals help raise support for the Cottonwood Fire Department, Cottonwood Ambulance, and the American Legion. Groups ranging from the Lakeview Booster Club to local businesses also help sponsor and organize the weekend’s events.

The Cottonwood Area Food Pantry has held food drives during Coming Home Days for the past three years, Sterner said. This year, members of the District 5M3 Lions Clubs stepped up to ask if they could help with the food drive.

“We’ve been trying to start a club back up here in Cottonwood,” said District Governor Greg Janachovsky of the Lucan Lions. “Hopefully, we get a good turnout during the parade.”

Janachovsky said District 5M3 includes 33 Lions clubs across 13 counties in southwest Minnesota. Some of the Lions volunteers came some distance to help with the food drive – in addition to Tracy and Lucan, there were Lions from communities including Windom, Hadley and Springfield.

The Lions had an informational booth in Cottonwood on Saturday at the same time they were collecting donations for the food pantry.

“We’re always looking for members,” Janachovsky said.

Sterner said the food pantry serves people in the area around Cottonwood and Wood Lake, and the Lakeview School District. The pantry started up with support from local churches, and administrators at Lakeview School. There was a definite need among families and elderly residents in the area, especially during the summer, she said.

Today, the pantry has moved into space on Cottonwood’s Main Street, near the corner of West Main and West First Street.

“We started out around the corner,” in a much smaller space, said volunteer Cathy Drager.

Sterner said the food pantry is 100% funded by the community, and a grant from the Cottonwood Area Community Foundation helped purchase shelving for the pantry.

“The Cottonwood Area Foundation has been incredible for us,” Sterner said. “It’s truly a community effort.”

“If the community wasn’t (supportive), I don’t know that we’d be able to pull this off,” Drager said. “We appreciate everything that gets donated.”