Woman honored for food drives

By TAYLOR BROWN

tbrown@yourmvi.com

A Fallowfield Township woman and her family were recognized by Washington County Commissioner Larry Maggi earlier this month for helping the community during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Small Towns, Big Hearts, a group of local volunteers led by Fallowfield Township residents Michele Vidnjvich-Zitz and Lisa Bellantoni, was created to make sure residents had food on their tables.

Maggi said the county was searching for residents to honor who went above and beyond for their neighbors during the pandemic. Vidnjvich-Zitz was nominated by Kristen Riley.

Small Towns, Big Hearts held four food drives, numerous food drop-offs and shopping trips during the pandemic.

“We wanted to help with people who couldn’t get out or who were just down on their luck,” she said. 

In total, Vidnjvich-Zitz said the group helped more than 800 families through the drives and dropped off 60 food boxes with groceries, gift cards and other necessities.

After taking a break over the summer, the group is now gearing up for the holidays.

“We have big plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas,” Vidnjvich-Zitz said. “We are hoping to get started with donations very soon and would like to give whole dinners for families in need.”

For Thanksgiving, the group plans to give out full meals of turkey, potatoes, gravy, vegetables, desserts and buns. For Christmas, the group will distribute hams.

They may also collect gifts for area children.

“We are not too sure if we are going to get into gift giving, but if the need is there, we may,” Vidnjvich-Zitz said. “We have always adopted a family for the last six years. We focused on one  family with a large amount of children and bought everything they wanted for gifts and dinner, which is such a rewarding and fun thing to do. I feel that food may be more important at this time, but we’ll see.”

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