Six hundred clients of the People’s Resource Center just got a head start on spring cleaning.
On Tuesday, low-income families who visited the grass-roots community agency’s food pantry got a welcome surprise. In addition to a bag of groceries, each client took home a bucket brimming with soap, sponges, scouring powder and other cleaning products donated by members of St. Daniel’s Parish in Wheaton. Church members filled 600 buckets, which were distributed at the pantry the past two Tuesdays.
“Our clients were overwhelmed,” said food pantry coordinator Al White. “There was probably $20 worth of cleaning supplies in every one of those buckets.”
White added that the product donations were especially welcome because the U.S. government food stamp program does not allow recipients to purchase cleaning supplies or personal care products with food stamps.
The bucket bonanza was the result of a partnership between St. Daniel’s, the Lisle Rotary and the Sharing Connection, a Lisle-based volunteer resource bank directed by Leeanne McGrath.
McGrath got the ball rolling by making a presentation to the Lisle Rotary. Armed with several empty buckets, she suggested Rotary members fill the pails with cleaning supplies and donate them to People’s Resource Center. Lisle Rotary member Mike Fitzgerald liked the idea and took it a step further by suggesting to Rev. Tom White, pastor at St. Daniel’s, that church members participate in the project.
“Father White said, `Sure,’ so the Sharing Connection provided the buckets and a few weeks ago members of the St. Daniel’s youth group distributed them to people as they left mass,” Fitzgerald said. “We gave away about 600 buckets and parishioners brought them back full on Palm Sunday.”
Lisle Rotary members picked up the buckets and delivered them to the People’s Resource Center, Fitzgerald said.
“Leeanne’s idea was terrific,” Fitzgerald said. “The concept is so simple and easy to do. It just takes people to donate.”