The Kankakee-Iroquois-Ford Association of REALTORS® (KIFAR) donated nearly $8,000 total in food and money to numerous area nonprofit organizations in late 2020 even as COVID-19 restrictions forced them to abandon their annual holiday party.

KIFAR CEO Tina Franklin and KIFAR President-elect Millie Zigtema proudly stood by Franklin’s pickup truck. It’s bed and its back seat were filled with donated food from Kankakee-area REALTORS®.

Brokerages and affiliates that normally sponsored party activities agreed to contribute those funds to local charities, and $3,000 was subsequently split between Harbor House in Kankakee and Iroquois counties, the Salvation Army, Uplifted Care and Iroquois Memorial Hospice. Also, KIFAR members donated another $3,000 to the Northern Illinois Food Bank and the Eastern Illinois Food Bank so those resources could be shared with food pantries in the three-county area. Finally, KIFAR CEO Tina Franklin challenged members to fill her pickup truck with nonperishable food that could also be donated to the pantries.

“I put a challenge out to the membership to ‘Fill the Ford’ – my truck – for our food drive,” said Franklin. “And they did. I am so grateful to be a part of the REALTOR® family, locally and statewide.

“With real estate considered an essential business, this project was our way of giving back to the communities where so many weren’t able to work,” she said. “We all need to support each other to get through this very unpredictable time that we live in.”

Other beneficiaries of the project included: the Wesly Table, the Methodist Church of Watseka, the Kankakee County Community Services, Inc., and Avis Huff School in Kankakee.

KIFAR, with 250 members, is led by Franklin, President Kent Chappell, President-elect Millie Zigtema, Treasurer Leanne Provost and Secretary Brit Wilkening.