Thanks to community support, more than 1,900 food items collected for local military families

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Volunteer Brent Anderson, Calvary Church volunteer Doug Shattuck, Christian Angel program coordinator Susie Shattuck, food drive chair Sharon Anderson and fellow Keller Williams Realtor volunteers Dana Swanson and Elizabeth Raber (McKenzie Images)

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Keller Williams Realty volunteers Dana Swanson, Elizabeth Raber and Sharon Anderson (food drive chair) (McKenzie Images)

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Food drive chair Sharon Anderson and fellow Keller Williams Realtor volunteers Dana Swanson and Elizabeth Raber (McKenzie Images)

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Keller Williams Realty volunteers Dana Swanson, Elizabeth Raber and Sharon Anderson (food drive chair) (McKenzie Images)

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Calvary Church Christian Angel program coordinator Susie Shattuck, volunteer Brent Anderson, food drive chair Sharon Anderson and fellow Keller Williams Realtor volunteers Dana Swanson and Elizabeth Raber, volunteer Doug Shattuck (McKenzie Images)

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Keller Williams Realty volunteers Dana Swanson, Elizabeth Raber and Sharon Anderson (food drive chair) (McKenzie Images)

Dec. 3, 2019 12:54 PM PT

It all started last year with one simple wagon of food. Sharon Anderson, a local realtor, collected a wagon full of non-perishable food items from her friends, family and neighbors in Solana Beach. The 300 items collected went to Angels Outreach in Solana Beach, which donates the items to local military families who have been living on the edge.

Angels Outreach adopts military families who are in financial crisis and who work with Support the Enlisted Project (STEP). STEP works with enlisted families to reduce current debt and get on sound financial footing. Angels Outreach operates out of Calvary Lutheran Church in Solana Beach.

This year, Anderson asked her husband, Brent Anderson, and two of her colleagues, Elizabeth Raber and Dana Swanson, to join with her in hopes they might be able to double their donation to the military families from the previous year. The four of them set out in the community and knocked on more than 750 doors dropping off donation bags. There was also a donation box set up at Keller Williams Carmel Valley for the local realtors to participate in donating as well.

The response was overwhelming. When the four returned to the neighborhoods to collect the bags of food Anderson realized there was much more than double the amount she donated last year. People were generous. Some neighbors donated two, three and four bags of food.

On Monday, Nov. 25, Anderson and her crew loaded up three vehicles filled with food items ranging from canned veggies, cereal, mac-n-cheese, stuffing and much more and delivered them to Angels Outreach. Because of the amazing response from the community they were able to donate over 1,900 food items, totaling almost 2,000 pounds of food. The food items this year will affect 82 individuals.

Anderson thanks the community members who supported this great cause to help those in the community who sacrifice so much.

Photos by McKenzie Images Online: delmartimes.net