63K Meal Bags Delivered To Needy Families At 5 Salt Lake City Schools

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Before the sun was up at Backman Elementary School in Salt Lake City, a Christmas miracle was in its final stages as an army of volunteers unloaded pallets of potatoes and other food for needy families.

One of the miracle makers was Ron Gibson, President of the Utah Farm Bureau.

“These are volunteers, from Utah State University, FFA state officers, farmers and ranchers from all over the state helping us here today,” Gibson said.

Stronger Together. It’s not just a phrase here in Utah – it’s an action.

The potatoes are from the Miracle of Agriculture, a foundation created during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“And through that, we’ve been able to raise money to buy food from local farmers and then we donate that food to people who have food insecurity and people in need,” he explained.

It’s the final piece to a major donation effort that started more than a week ago on Instagram by local social media influencer Melea Johnson.

Social Media Influencer Raises Funds To Feed Thousands Of Utah Kids

KSL told you about her work earlier this month. She put out a call for help to her followers, nearly 500,000 of them.

“Within three hours we had hit our goal of $10,000. I was blown away,” Johnson said. The donations kept coming in. “When we hit 24 hours and I checked our totals, we were at $30,000. It ends up being 63,000 meals.

Johnson and other volunteers from the local non-profit For the Kids put the meals together.

Thousands of bags of food filled the floor at the school.

“This is absolutely amazing,” said Minda Zoloth from For the Kids. “It started out with us wanting to do 450 bags and it’s now 2,200 bags.”

Johnson and her family took an active role in this donation from the very beginning, and she said Wednesday was no different. “It’s definitely made this Christmas more special than others because we’ve been able to do something like this, something that is so simple. Food is so simple for some of us but a lot of us really really need it.”

Johnson said everyone can make a difference. “This is proof you can get stuff done in 2020 and everyone cares, there are still good people out there.”

Minda agreed, “It’s amazing, that’s the thing, during this whole thing of COVID, showing the spirit of Utah and people coming together to help and I think that overcomes anything else we can go through.”

You can contribute to the effort.

Visit their forthekids.org where you can volunteer or donate.

You can also help our farmers get their fresh food to families in need by visiting miracleofag.org and make a donation.