City of Hobbs big Pop-Tart haul
Caleb A. Gallegos/News-Sun
City of Hobbs staff recently packed on around 550,000 calories, and — working faster than a Richard Simmons workout — lost it all after donating 2,744 Pop-Tarts to the Weekend Hunger Initiative.
When walking up to the second floor of City Hall, it was hard for a person to miss the almost six-foot, blue wall of different flavored Pop-Tarts that added a dash of vibrant color to the whole building.
Teaming up with the WHI, City of Hobbs held a friendly contest among departments to see which department could collect the most Pop-Tarts to donate to WHI’s Snack Bag Program.
With flavors like frosted cinnamon roll, Girl Scouts frosted thin mints, lemon blueberry crumble and everything in between — City of Hobbs staff understood the mission.
The staff of The Senior Center collected the most frosted pastries and were crowned the toaster titans of City Hall.
WHI is a non-profit organization in its 13th year providing food for students in need of meals over the weekend.
Focusing on the weekend nutritional needs of children in Hobbs, WHI currently serves more than 1,200 students every Friday.
“These children do not have any choices; they cannot drive themselves to the store for food or even ask for help. Many of them have parents who are working, but just do not make enough to provide everything needed. These children need a help up,” a statement on WHI’s website reads.
Leslie Pfalzgraf, executive director of WHI, said the donation from the City of Hobbs also came with donations from other entities throughout the community as part of WHI’s Christmas in July.
Pfalzgraf said during Christmas in July, different businesses and organizations collect a certain food item to donate to the program.
And although winter isn’t quite here, WHI collected enough food and snacks this year to have the biggest grizzly bear ready to hibernate for the entire winter.
“Cowboy Junction did over 10,000 pudding cups, another church did 75 cases of Nutella, the hospital did over 4,000 fruit cups and applesauce and another church collected granola and cereal bars,” Pfalzgraf said. “What we do is send home little snacks to get them through the weekend. They are going to get a little cereal, a cereal bar, a pudding, applesauce or fruit cup, a soup or a Chef Boyardee, a shelf-stable meal, a snack and a protein.”
Although the staff at the Senior Center are the champs of City Hall, it took teamwork to make the dream work, and all the support and donations collated from the different businesses and entities helps parents and children using WHI’s program with a “help up,” Pfalzgraf said.
“It is super important to us because it gives us that little boost that we need, and like I said we always call what we do a ‘help up,’ and that’s what they did for us. They helped us give these children a ‘help up,'” Pfalzgraf said.
Parents may register their children online for the program, Pfalzgraf said. All information about the program can be found on their website at whihobbs.com.
