Trilogy at Redmond Ridge’s “Neighbors Helping Neighbors” food drive benefiting Hopelink lived up to its promise.

At the kick-off ceremony on July 15, more than 90 volunteers, community leaders and Shea Homes representatives turned out.

“The community really opened their pantries and their hearts,” remarked Molly Boll, food drive organizer.

The food drive resulted in 18,200 pounds of collected food and $1,315.00 donated to Hopelink’s services.

Boll further emphasized, “This truly is a total community effort. With potentially 1,000 homes to reach, our door-to-door pick-up strategy took many hands, many neighbors. And lots of people giving.”

Debra Grant, Hopelink director of client services stated, “Hopelink distributed over 3.3 million pounds of food last year to households living in North and East King County. Many of the families we see are seniors, disabled or working households with limited resources. It’s communities like Trilogy that come together which helps Hopelink in its efforts.”

Redmond City Councilmember Hank Myers captured volunteers’ attention when he generously donated $100 and humorously remarked that his donation is “equal to one-third of my council take-home pay.”

The moment grew still when Myers went on to say that the gesture, albeit sincere, is trivial in comparison to the outpouring of community effort demonstrated by the morning’s turnout and the encompassing humanitarian services provided by Hopelink.

At the end of the day, gazing at the truckloads of donated bags and boxes of food, Scott Milne, manager of Redmond Hopelink Center remarked, “it was a remarkably successful event … surpassing many expectations and so many families will benefit.”

Ryan Comer, Redmond Ridge QFC store manager agreed, “This is just the sort of people-to-people, community event that we look to support.”

Boll concluded that Trilogy hopes to repeat the food drive next year, again with the help of community partners and neighbors.