The third annual “Sound the Siren” food drive to the United Way’s Food 4 Kids program is underway in Hastings. The Sound the Siren food drive is a friendly competition between the Hastings Police Department and the Dakota County Sheriff’s office. The department that gathers the most donations of food and cash wins.

The event starts at the top, Chief David Wilske and Sheriff Joe Leko are the sacrificial participants depending on which ‘team’ wins the event. If Hastings earns the win, then Chief Wilske will be smashing a pie to the face of Sheriff Leko and if Dakota County earns the win, then Sheriff Leko gets to cream Chief Wilske with the pie.

The leaders of each team are Deputy Hanah Martin and Officer Whitney Rinowksi. They have both done an amazing job the previous two years motivating their team to raise funds and food for the true winner, the Food 4 Kids program.

The best part of this event is seeing both offices come together to help the Food 4 Kids Program. The second-best part is the fun the offices have putting this together each year. All four of the officers mentioned above have a load of fun with this, they even go as far as to produce promotional videos where they do a little antagonizing and teasing each other to increase the hype of the event. It is really great to see the people behind the badges are people just like the rest of us. Last year, because both Chief Wilske and Sheriff Leko were new, they both received a pie in the face even though Hastings won.

Food 4 Kids is a program spearheaded by Amy Schafer of the United Way of Hastings. Food 4 Kids is a program that started several years ago as a test program to serve food to kids who had a need for food on weekends when away from the meals they receive at school. The most recent data for meals served was over 6,000 in a year and they are currently preparing meals for 200 kids each weekend. That takes a lot of help from the community and Hastings has always stepped up, especially for our students.

To help, keep an eye open for local officers or deputies out in the community. Last year, some may or may not have been stationed at Cub collecting food for their team as a way to get a leg up on the competition, so you may see more of that this year.

You can help the cause by donating to either the Hastings team or Dakota County team. Donations are taken at Hastings PD and Hastings City Hall and Dakota County Administration Center in Hastings or the Dakota County Sheriff's Office from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. from now until April 28th. The announcement of the recipient of the pie to the face will be made at a special event in May during police week.