Lots of people in central Illinois will be having a heartier and happier holiday thanks to the efforts of our dear friend Meghan Grebner, agribusiness director for WMBD and WIRL in Peoria.

Megs has been so excited about this promotion where she partnered up with eight county farm bureaus and their young leaders and asked farmers from Central Illinois to donate a minimum of 10 bushels of corn or soybeans to their local participating grain elevators. The money from the donations was presented to the Midwest Food Bank in Peoria on Friday.

“We raised a total of $28,700 for the Midwest Food Bank’s Tender Mercies Program, which is a packaged meal given to local food banks,” she told me in an email. The money will fund 57,400 packages of Tender Mercies and each package feeds anywhere between 4 and 6 people. That means the $28,700 that Meghan helped to raise will feed approximately 229,600 people! Wow!

Doesn’t she look cute in this photo? It was taken by one of her colleagues at the radio group, Courtney Lynne Bickerman. Congratulations to all who helped out with this project. Great job, Megs!