(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic Area Chamber’s Annual Scrooge Contest was held the month of November. This year’s contestants included Graydon Schmidt, Schmidt Family Funeral Home; Randy & Michelle Roy, Randy’s Computers; Jeremiah Thompson, Landus & Atlantic Volunteer Fire Department, and Ben Winford, New Life Church. This year’s winner is Graydon Schmidt, who raised $8,611 and 90 food items. Together, they raised a total of $26,859 and 1,666 food items.

“Every year, I ask myself how the community can one up themselves and, every year, I’m always impressed that they manage to do just that. This benefits a growing number of individuals and families in our community,” Bailey Smith, Executive Director at the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce stated.

In 2016, the Atlantic Food Pantry saw an average of 18 homes each week. Today, they are averaging 110 homes weekly with the need expected to rise. This contest allows the food pantry the monetary funds to purchase food items and continue serving a large population in Atlantic.

Scrooge contestants

This Year’s Scrooge winner: Graydon Schmidt

“Our food pantry continues to see an increase of individuals and families in need of food assistance. We had such a great group of candidates this year and I’m grateful to Jackie Sampson and Karen Miller for volunteering a lot of their time to make this contest happen. What a blessing to live in a community that serves others so well,” mentioned Smith.

Past Scrooge titles have been awarded to: Mary Ann Moorman 2007, Dana Halder 2008, Tammy Wise & Janet Huey 2009, Ritchie Anderson 2010, Janet Cappel 2011, Melanie Petty 2012, David Miller 2013, Mark McNees 2014, Ted Robinson 2015, Jon Johnson 2016, Rob Stamp 2017, Rob & Sonya Clausen 2018, Billie Hoover, Jackie Sampson & Lori Christianson 2019, Brain Ruge 2020, Ray Paulin 2021, Dr. Matt Weresh, 2022, and Sheryl Dusenberry 2023.