Holiday Grinch hits church, steals baking supplies for food pantry
A person stole donations from a Fairfield church collecting baking supplies for the local food pantry.
For the last eight years, the Holiday Baking Bag Project has gathered non-perishable ingredients for families in need to make cookies. McKenna Myers cooked up the idea.
"It's the holidays, who doesn't want to make cookies," Myers said.
Each bag has a baking pan, spatula, cookie mix, sprinkles, and icing. The finished product is then passed out at the Fairfield Food Pantry during their holiday distribution.
"Clients absolutely love it because it's, you know, we don't give out a dessert," Fairfield Food Pantry manager Wayne Patton said. "We give out food with everything a family needs to make a holiday meal."
According to Patton, the Fairfield Food Pantry is experiencing a historic number of clients needing food, making this year's holiday donations all that more important.
There are drop-off sites for the Holiday Baking Bag Project around Fairfield, and last week, one of the sites was hit by a grinch.
"It's crazy to think that out of all the places that happened at a church," Myers said.
Sacred Heart Church's security captures show a man walking into the building and swiping all the donations.
"I was stunned, to say the least," Patton said.
Myers believes the items taken cost more than $150.
"We saw that he did two loads," Myers said. "He took all of the items that were in the bins."
The Fairfield Police Department was notified about the incident.
Even with the setback of the stolen items, the Holiday Baking Bag Project will continue. Myers plans to make more than 200 bags this season.
Donations will be collected through Dec. 11, and you can drop off ingredients at the Fairfield Community Arts Center and Badin High School.
If you would like to donate to the Fairfield Food Pantry, click here.