Share Oskaloosa Gives Back Even At The End
Oskaloosa Share donated money to the United Way of Mahaska County “Take along program” Jan Palmer is seen receiving the donation on behalf of the program. (submitted photo)
Oskaloosa, Iowa – A group of volunteers was busy recently, as they passed out the final orders from Share Oskaloosa. The group was part of the Share Iowa program that was based out of Oskaloosa and had over 100 other communities that rewarded volunteer work with reduced cost food.
Since Share Oskaloosa was a non-profit, the fund balance needed to be dispersed to benefit the community, and the group chose two different programs to receive those funds.
The first program was the snack bar for kids at the Mahaska County YMCA. According to Katy Green, “The Y offers free snacks for kids in the community after school and before breakfast.”
Share Oskaloosa also presented the United Way of Mahaska County with a donation as well. That money will go towards their backpack program that helps youth in the community have food over the weekend.
Green said that currently, snacks are put out for breakfast “because we have kids who don’t belong to the Y that ride the bus or come through the community and then after school we put them out during the summer. I think we’ll probably have things out all day long.”
Joe Larkin and Kathy Williams were with Share Oskaloosa. Not only were they busy helping to distribute that last shipment of food, but they were also helping to disperse those remaining funds.
According to Williams, Share Iowa closed due to a lack of participation in the program. “We’ve been seeing it for years, but we finally had to make the decision,” added Williams.
Williams isn’t done volunteering, she’ll be looking for a new place to donate her time and talents.
Williams thanked Penn Central Mall for allowing them to use the space for their final distribution. “They were right there to give it [space] to us. We appreciate it.”
“We’re going to miss our program,” Williams said in closing.
“We want to thank the community for the support for all these years,” Larkin added.
