The Hastings Police Department won the good-natured competition for the 2024 Food 4 Kids food drive competition with the Dakota County Sheriff’s Department.
Actually, the community wins in this event, dubbed Sound the Siren. Food and cash donations benefit the United Way of Hastings’ Food4Kids program, which is run in cooperation with Coborn’s and Hastings ISD #200. Food4Kids provides weekend meals and was started when the “United Way of Hastings became aware there were students in Hastings coming to school hungry on Monday mornings. After a pilot program verified the need for weekend meal packs, UWH launched the Food4Kids program. The school district has a shared excel sheet with the number of bags each school needs each week. We work with Coborn’s to buy food for the bags and several local organizations help us pack the bags,” according to the United Way.
The program delivers an average of 200 meal bags per week to school buildings.
It’s the second consecutive Sound the Siren win for the Hastings Police Department.
The United Way said more than $3,000 and 6,000 food items were collected by the two law enforcement agencies.
Because the Hastings Police Department won the friendly competition, Police Chief David Wilske again put a pie in the face of Sheriff Joe Leko. Leko came prepared, covering his uniform in a rain poncho.
Before delivering the pie, Wilske said, “Sheriff, I hate to do this, but it’s the spirit of fun and camaraderie.”
“Absolutely,” Leko responded.