Nearly 200 at Salvation Army enjoy food donations from Cherry Blossom vendors

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The Cherry Blossom Festival has almost every food you could imagine, from gyros to boiled peanuts.

You might even have enough to take some home, without ever thinking of those who can’t.

“We’ve done a lot of events throughout South Carolina and Georgia, and this is actually the first event that we’ve done where they’ve asked for us to do something like this,” says David Owen, owner of Island Noodles.

For the sixth year, we asked vendors around Central City Park to donate food to the Salvation Army. The weather this year has kept sales low, but more vendors than ever before agreed to give back.

“I’ve been there,” says Chris Robbeloth with Robbeloth Concessions. “And it’s not fun going hungry.”

“We come down here and try to make a living on one of our stops and spend money in the community,” says Kris Ryan with K&R Concessions. “You want to try to give back to the community.”

For some, it just feels good to give back. For others, it’s in their nature.

“That’s just who we are,” says Willie Johnson with the Macon-Bibb Fire Department.

Soni Ryan, a worker with Just Baked, has seen the city’s homeless firsthand.

“I took a tour of downtown Macon the other day when we had off,” she says. “I seen a lot of them on the streets and hanging out. You definitely have a lot. It’s definitely a good help for them.”

“Not everybody’s as privileged as we are,” says Jerry England, owner of Jerry’s Elephant Ears. “God’s blessed us quite well, and not everybody’s that blessed.”

Thanks to these generous vendors, everyone gets to experience the festival, or at least, all the good food that comes with it.

“It’s great,” says Ted Wolfson, owner of the Woodstock Pretzel Company. “We have one homeless guy that’s been coming around here every day. We give him a pretzel every day. He was so happy that a couple of my kids went up there and danced with him on the stage. It’s good. The people need it, and why else are we really here but to help other people?”

The donations fed nearly 200 people at the Salvation Army.

Here are some of the items:

K&R concessions – 2 dozen desserts & 2 dozen quesadillas
Old Style foods – 30 ears of roasted corn
Gillette Pizza – 40 slices of pizza
Beaver Food Service –  30 deep fried Oreos
Denton’s Food – 6 corn dogs
Woodstock Pretzel Company –  50 pretzels
Island Noodles – 20 bowls of noodles
Ibison Concessions – 24 corn dogs
Dixie Smashers & Poppers  – 5 bags of kettle corn
Sticky Fingers BBQ – 25 BBQ sandwiches
Just Baked – 50 cinnamon rolls & 25 Gyros
Jerry’s Elephant Ears – 50 elephant ears
B and M Sweet Shop – a 33 gallon bag of popcorn
Macon Bibb Fire Department – 25 bags of boiled peanuts
Jake’s Italian Grill – 15 corn dogs
Angela’s Pizza – personal pan pizzas
Robbeloth Concessions – 20 corn dogs, 10 turkey legs, 12 Italian sandwiches