The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
The fact that the Franklin Food Bank received a donation on June 1 wasn’t unusual; what was unusual was how the donation was delivered.
Members of the Somerset County Sheriff’s Department, accompanied by officers from the Franklin Township Police Department, bicycled from Somerville to the Food Bank’s Churchill Avenue headquarters to drop off a check for $1,200.
The method of delivery was appropriate, in that the donation was made in conjunction with the Food Bank’s Tour de Franklin bicycle tour fundraising campaign which ended late last month.
The contingent was led by Sheriff Darrin Russo, a Franklin resident.
Donations were made by members of PBA Local 177, Sheriff’s Department corrections officers, and PBA Local 272, which is the Sheriff’s Department’s law division, and individual officers, Russo said.
“The unions are all about helping the community,” Russo said. He said that one of his goals is to get officers out into communities “any way I can.”
Frank Hasner, the Food Bank’s executive director, said all donations are welcome, no matter how they arrive.
“Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, the Franklin Food Bank has helped over 5,000 families and counting,” he said. “The economic situation created or worsened by the pandemic is still here with us and the food bank sees it every day. That’s why the support of the community is so important.”
“It’s vital that Franklin residents know about the food bank because we need their support and it’s vital that Franklin residents know about the food bank because maybe they need our support,” Hasner said.
