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Farmers Deliver to Ronald McDonald House

SCRANTON, Pa. — Every year for two decades, Pennsylvania farmers and Ronald McDonald House locations around the state have worked together to provide for ...

SCRANTON, Pa. -- Every year for two decades, Pennsylvania farmers and Ronald McDonald House locations around the state have worked together to provide for families with sick children.

The Ronald McDonald house on Wheeler Avenue in Scranton has provided a home away from home for families with sick kids receiving medical treatment at facilities in northeastern Pennsylvania for more than 30 years.

And every year members of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau use their love for agriculture to provide food for those families in need.

"My big thing is, without agriculture, we don't have food."

And boxes of food is what farmers from northeastern Pennsylvania delivered to the Ronald McDonald House in Scranton. Over the past 20 years, these farmers have also helped contribute $1 million to this and other locations around the state.

"A lot of pride, definitely pride. It's overwhelming to think that a group of people could do that staggering amount," said Emma Hinkley, Pennsylvania State Women's Leadership Committee.

This delivery by members of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau included a check for more than $2,000, gifts cards, and several boxes of food and paper products to the Ronald McDonald House near Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton.

"Those boxes are heavy too. They've filled them. They take all that time. They spend all those months doing this. It's not a one or two-day thing. They do a lot of hard work for us which helps us the whole year," said Richard Bradshaw of Scranton's Ronald McDonald House.

The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau supports all of the Ronald McDonald Houses in the state. The houses are a home away from home for families with seriously ill children.

"It's great because these families come, they come they have a crisis in the hospital. You have to think for them and feed them," said Dale Shupp, Wyoming/Lackawanna County Farm Bureau.

"We're really grateful for the hard work, especially when it's consistent. It's like the sun coming up tomorrow. It's really neat stuff. We're grateful for the work of the PFB," said Bradshaw.

The farmers collect food, cleaning supplies, and money all year round and present the donations once a year to the Ronald McDonald House.

"If we call them, anytime, anywhere they are there, which is really neat. Just like it should be," Bradshaw added.

The Ronald McDonald house in Scranton can serve up to eight families at a time.

The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau is the largest agriculture organization in the state with 62,000 members.

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