Lawrence County Common Pleas Court administrative assistants Talitha Patterson and Amanda Cleary organized a Thanksgiving food drive for the second straight year.

On Friday, all of the food collected was loaded up into a truck and taken to the Community Free Market in Aid, a total volunteer outreach program, for Lawrence County residents.

“We ran the drive from the beginning of November until now,” Patterson said. “We gave out a checklist of everything non-perishable needed for a basic Thanksgiving dinner and asked all of the offices in the courthouse to fill a box. Every office in the courthouse and some outside businesses participated. Some even filled multiple boxes.”

This year, around 40 boxes were made up for the food drive and Patterson said Lawrence County Commissioner Freddie Hayes, Jr. donated $100.

“When the boxes get to the market, they’ll add a ham and a gallon of milk before handing them out to people,” Patterson said. “It’s definitely a community effort.”