Celebrating Our Generous Community


Coretta Scott King, an American author, said, “The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.”

Witnessing 2553 pounds of non-perishable food arrive at Bell’s ACT (Assertive Community Treatment) Program, was a beautiful visualization of how GREAT our community is. The Bags for Bell food drive, was a success because of hard work and the compassion of our community.

Together, family members, co-workers, members of the community, helped side-by-side unload 2553 pounds of food. Stocking the pantry, hallway, and conference room of the ACT Program. Knowing how many people this food will feed, renders one speechless, with tears of joy in their eyes.

Team D, part of the Leadership Training Program through Leadership York, held a non-perishable food drive, as their service project. The members of Team D that assisted with the food drive and the delivery were Brandon Bromley, Kelsey Hoke, Amy Heim, and Adrianna Pozos.

Kelsey, from Sheridan, said, “I think it is AMAZING what five people can do, five people who reached out to their friends and family. If you think about that and all that could be possible in the world, it is just amazing.”

The non-perishable food will benefit Bell’s ACT program. Kris Stroup, Director of Mental Health Services, said, “We are a family here, so our clients that are in the ACT program are the benefactors of this food, but we have other programs that we support, and we will let them know if they have someone who needs food come on out to ACT. We work really closely to help each other.”

It is this sentiment of family, of working together, within our community that Amy, from RKL LLP, commented, “I think definitely in the York community, that it really is a community, at some point everyone knows each other. There are a lot of people who are willing to help. Everyone understands that we all benefit from helping each other.”

Jeff Kirkland, ACT Certified Substance Abuse Specialist, replied, “I have been in York for seventy-two years and I think it is just a great community. I have never been in a position where I asked for help and didn’t receive it. It is a GIVING community.”

Seeing the amount of generosity, the people in our community gave, Kris said, “It is so easy to focus on the bad things, but when you look at all of this, you realize that there are a lot of giving people out there.”

The 2553 pounds of non-perishable food will help many, many people in our community. Kris explained, “Whenever we have the opportunity to give people food, we are glad to do it because they need it.”

Plus $250 in gift cards were donated that will help clients purchase perishable food items.

We thank Amy, Kelsey, Brandon, and Adrianna for their hard work and dedication. We thank everyone who donated for their generosity.

Janel Fox, Bell’s Outreach Coordinator, capturing the spirit and joy of the moment said, “This is a wonderful, wonderful thing.”