The St. Apollonia Dental Clinic Festival of Trees was recently held and this year was the 4th year of participation for ACAP.

While most of the trees on display at the Festival of Trees invite participants to place tickets in buckets for a chance to win the display, ACAP’s Community Giving Tree had a unique twist. Instead of winning the tree of cereal, participants showed their support for ending hunger by placing their tickets in the bucket understanding that local grocers pledged to match tickets. This year 1,024 tickets were collected.

ACAP collected cereal boxes which will be distributed to children who attend their early care and education centers, as well as stock Community Cupboards across Aroostook County in an effort to raise awareness of food insecurity. ACAP staff donated 577 boxes, which was matched with more than 700 additional boxes donated by generous local grocers, which included: Andy's IGA, Aroostook Foods, Caribou/Houlton Hannaford Supermarket, Caribou/Presque Isle Save A Lot, Country Farms Market, Ellis Family Market, Graves' Shop'n Save, Jerry's Foodstore, John's Shurfine, Mike's Family Market, Oakfield Thriftway, Paradis Family Shop'n Save, Presque Isle/ Houlton Walmart & Star City/Hillside/Mars Hill IGA.

Jason Parent, ACAP Executive Director, calls food insecurity "a very real issue in our communities" He adds the cereal collected during this annual drive helps stock the shelves of Community Cupboards, "many of which are located outside, during the cold winter months when other food products would freeze."

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