City transit hosts Jolly Trolley Food Drive

City of Santa Clarita Transit Road Supervisor, Keith Carr, top, and Administrative Analyst, Alex Porlier collect donated food at the City of Santa Clarita hosted Jolly Trolley Food Drive to benefit the SCV Food Pantry and held at the Westfield Valencia Town Center in Valencia on Saturday, 121920. Dan Watson/The Signal
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Utilizing the city’s Hometown Trolley, city officials drove to various landmarks in Santa Clarita during their Jolly Trolley Food Drive on Saturday, accepting food donations for the SCV Food Pantry all along the way.

Throughout the day, and at locations such as Central Park and the Valencia Town Center, residents from all over Santa Clarita visited one of the trolley’s five destinations in order to hand off everything from canned food to diapers to even a large donation of cologne.

City of Santa Clarita Transit Road Supervisor, Keith Carr organizes boxes and bags of donated food during the City of Santa Clarita Jolly Trolley Food Drive held drive held at the Westfield Valencia Town Center in Valencia on Saturday, 121920. Dan Watson/The Signal
City of Santa Clarita Administrative Analyst, Alex Porlier hangs the banner on the Jolly Trolley during the City of Santa Clarita Jolly Trolley Food Drive held drive held at the Westfield Valencia Town Center in Valencia on Saturday, 121920. Dan Watson/The Signal
City of Santa Clarita Transit Road Supervisor, Keith Carr,left, waits, in the Jolly Trolley as Administrative Analyst, Alex Porlier collects food from a passing car that donated food during the City of Santa Clarita hosted Jolly Trolley Food Drive held drive held at the Westfield Valencia Town Center in Valencia to benefit eh SCV Food Pantry on Saturday, 121920. Dan Watson/The Signal

“We normally take the trolley during the holidays and I saw an ad in the paper this morning and thought donating would be kind of fun,” said Karl Schmill, a Saugus resident who donated food Saturday. “You look at what we’ve been going through this past nine months, there’s a lot of people that need help; so we’ve been trying to do this and that stuff we would normally do, if we were going out to restaurants and stuff.”

Alex Porlier, city of Santa Clarita administrative analyst, said the idea for the event was to ensure people were able to spread holiday cheer.

City of Santa Clarita Administrative Analyst, Alex Porlier, right, collects donated food from Chris Blake, left, Clay and Jan Porlier and their chocolate Lab, Taylor at the City of Santa Clarita hosted Jolly Trolley Food Drive held drive to benefit the SCV Food Pantry and held at the Westfield Valencia Town Center in Valencia on Saturday, 121920. Dan Watson/The Signal
City of Santa Clarita Transit Road Supervisor, Keith Carr hangs a wreath on the Jolly Trolley to start the City of Santa Clarita Jolly Trolley Food Drive held drive held at the Westfield Valencia Town Center in Valencia on Saturday, 121920. Dan Watson/The Signal

“I’m just excited we get to do something this year, and I’m actually amazed at how many people are showing up for this,” said Porlier. “I mean, this was fairly short notice, kind of put together because we couldn’t do the light tour, and we’re getting a lot of people just driving up, popping open the trunk and we’re pulling out donations.”

Porlier said that, usually, when the city does the holiday light tour using the trolley — going around town and viewing all the various holiday lights that have been set up — they get close to 2,000 pounds of food. And as of 1 p.m., the city was once again closing in on its goal, said Porlier.

“This means (people in need) can use their hard-earned money for some other essentials,” said Porlier. “Anything and everything is helpful.”

People who missed Saturday’s opportunity, but still wish to donate during this pandemic holiday, can visit the SCV Food Pantry’s website at scvfoodpantry.org/.

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