Golden Celery Trophy Food Drive

Would your congregation like to be part of a fun competition to help people in our community?   Last year fourteen congregations collectively donated 13,550 pounds of food to our emergency food pantries during the month of July as part of the Golden Celery Trophy Food Drive.   The congregation that won the trophy was First Congregational Church of Salt Lake City..  Members of that church donated over 70 pounds per person!

A congregation can be part of the food drive just by donating food during the of July,  To compete for the trophy a congregation must also track attendance at worship services each weekend so that we can calculate donations per person.  If your congregation is interested in being part of the competition this year please register and let us know.

To count toward the competition for the trophy donations most be received between July 1, 2025, and August 4, 2025.

Top Donation needs for  this year's Food Drive

• Peanut butter
  
• Cereal
  
• Canned fruit/fruit cups
  
• Individual snacks (granola bars, etc.)
  
• Ramen 
  
• Crackers
  
• Canned tomatoes/tomato product
  
• Canned soup
  

History of the Golden Celery Competition

During the summer months children are out of school and families need more help with food.  Unfortunately, donations to food pantries generally go down during summer months.  More than ten years ago local congregations came up with a fun way to solve this problem by challenging each other to see who could donate the most pounds per person during the month of July.  The trophy to be awarded to the winning congregation would be a gold tinted can of dehydrated celery that was produced in the 1970s.