The St. Paul Vulcans delivered over 2 tons of food to a local nonprofit in the same five firetrucks they used to storm the ice castle during the St. Paul Winter Carnival.

They donated the food to Second Harvest Heartland in St. Paul, the largest food shelf organization in Minnesota, which will distribute the food to hundreds of other food shelves and pantries across the state.

The food was collected at the Vulcan Snow Park, which was open at the State Fairgrounds during the Winter Carnival. The drive — the Vulcans’ first — was spearheaded by Tony Mahood, a Vulcan Snow Park chairperson since 2012.

“We thought it would be a great idea to bring in food to a food shelf, because in the winter they get low,” Mahood said.

About 20 people helped with loading the food into the firetrucks. To weigh the food, they used a scale donated by Chris Berne of Berne Scale.

More than 150,000 people attended the snow park from Jan. 26-Feb. 11.

For the past six years, the Vulcans built a snow hill two-and-a-half stories tall and charged visitors $2 to slide down, but this year, they could donate a non-perishable food item and ride down the hill for free.

The Vulcans used $3,000 from the snow hill proceeds to pay people from more than 20 different organizations and churches to help out with the slide. They estimated 14,000 kids came down the slide this year.

Next year, they’re hoping to have a boot-hockey tournament, according to Mahood.

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Tommy Cherep — this year’s Vulcanus Rex — led the procession of firetrucks to the food shelf. Related Articles As memories of George Floyd fade, activists make sure his legacy does not

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“This is kind of a big deal,” Cherep said. “It helps out the food shelf, and that’s why we do it – to try to bring food to the people who need it.”

One in 10 people in Minnesota and western Wisconsin face hunger every day, according to Second Harvest Heartland. In 2017, the organization helped provide a record 81 million meals to more than a half-million people.