First she set out to ‘Fix Highway 49’. Now, she’s set on feeding the hungry in Nevada County. Jolie Allen was in sixth grade when she organized community meetings with the public, the Highway Patrol, and other agencies to make the Highway 49 corridor safer. Two years later, her newest idea is to have drop-off barrels outside of grocery stores to fill with non-perishable food. Jolie says she got the idea on a recent family trip to Los Angeles….

There’s a website, www.fillthebarrel.com, where you can donate to Interfaith Food Ministry, sponsor a barrel, or find out their locations. Jolie’s older brother Silas built the website, and also helps in the collection efforts. He says the barrels are located outside just about all of the area grocery stores…

The Allens say they didn’t have many problems getting store owners to agree to having the barrels near the front doors, but they are having some problems with customers thinking the barrels are trash cans.

–gf