WQIO Ohio's Super Station
While the Knox County Fair is known for livestock, 4-H projects, food and entertainment, the Knox County Junior Fair Board spent this year’s fair helping address a much more serious community need: food insecurity.
The Junior Fair Board collected 891.7 pounds of food and $460 in monetary donations through its annual Stock the Trailer food drive benefiting Food For The Hungry of Knox County.
The drive was held throughout fair week, with Junior Fair Board members encouraging attendees to bring nonperishable food items or monetary donations to the Junior Fair Board Office.
This year’s collection marks the third consecutive year the Junior Fair Board has organized Stock the Trailer at the Knox County Fair.
The students’ efforts even caught the attention of 10TV in Columbus, which featured the Stock the Trailer effort in a news report.
When Tanner Cooper-Risser, Food For The Hungry’s annual drive and community relations director, arrived with his children and community volunteer Russ Mentzer to collect the donations, they learned just how much the fairgoers had contributed.
In total, the drive produced nearly 900 pounds of food, along with $460 that will help support Food For The Hungry’s efforts to address food insecurity in Knox County.
Donations Headed to Mount Vernon Food Pantry
The donated food was delivered to the Salvation Army of Knox County, where it will be distributed through the organization’s food pantry in Mount Vernon.
The $460 in monetary donations will be added to Food For The Hungry’s 2026 Drive Collection, according to the organization.
Photos included with the announcement show Cooper-Risser, Mentzer and Junior Fair Board member Phoebe Hults standing with the collected donations before they were delivered to the Salvation Army.
Additional photos show Hults and Cooper-Risser with boxes of donated food and the Salvation Army food pantry after the donations were delivered.
Junior Fair Board Plans to Continue
Hults, who coordinated this year’s Stock the Trailer effort, said the Junior Fair Board isn’t finished.
“We’ve been collecting food for FFTH for three years, and we plan to do it again next year!”
Hults encouraged the community to continue supporting neighbors who need assistance when the 2027 Knox County Fair arrives.
Food For The Hungry has worked for 45 years to collect and distribute food and monetary contributions for needy individuals and families in Knox County.
The organization works with partner agencies to address food insecurity and what it describes as an effort to disrupt the cycle of poverty.
FFTH thanked the Knox County Junior Fair Board for continuing to support its mission and said it looks forward to continuing the partnership in future years.
The organization described the effort as an example of the community working together to care for its neighbors.
Nearly 900 pounds of food collected at a county fair may sound like a simple donation drive, but for the local food pantry, those donations translate into groceries that can be placed on the shelves and ultimately into the hands of Knox County families who need them.
