A Success story from Chippewa Street !

It was just a few weeks ago when a group of friends heard of the dire situation at the Sault Ste. Marie Community Soup Kitchen running out of food. Photos in the media showed General Manager Ron Sims standing in front of bare shelves.

Kylee Premo ,Trina Skagen and Lacey Spina immediately sprang into action with a plan. They created , “Food for Clothes”  inviting people to donate a can of food in exchange for new and pre-owned clothing like designer handbags and brand name clothing items.

The three had their work cut out for them only giving themselves about two weeks to pull this off.

Apparently they did – big time.

On Saturday, despite threatening weather, cars started lining up at 7am.

The event opened at 9am at their Chippewa Street location.  “People just waited until we opened” beamed Kylee Premo.  Designer accessories with price tags of several hundred dollars still on them were up for grabs all donated by the community, family and friends.

Left over clothing items will be packed up and donated to the Women in Crisis, the organizers say.

“the Sault should be really proud today” Premo added remarking on the response to the event that ran until late afternoon. Everything was donated included coffee courtesy McDonalds, while t-shirts were printed courtesy the SK group and the Group Health Centre lent the event the tents required.

“Today  was an amazing response from the community! We collected 1270 items and $1276.25” commented Trina Skagen. “We hope this can become annual, we had a lot of positive response from the event” Premo said.