Food pantry patrons winners of Supermarket Sweep fundraiser

FORT KENT, Maine — The Greater Fort Kent Ecumenical Food Pantry gained a cartful of groceries the day before Easter when the winner of a Supermarket Sweep fundraiser swapped out her first place raffle ticket. 

Fort Kent educator Jocelyn Saucier’s raffle ticket to benefit the Valley Rivers Middle School eighth grade class Project Augusta trip won her a 3-minute sweep of all the groceries she could stuff into one cart at John’s Shurfine grocery store.

Project Augusta is an annual field trip during which Fort Kent eighth-graders visit the Maine State Capital and embark on other adventures downstate such as an ocean boat tour and museum visits. Students raise money for the trip by a variety of fundraisers throughout the school year, including the Supermarket Sweep. 

Saucier traded tickets with an unknown person who placed third in the raffle, and who had purchased $100 worth of tickets naming the food pantry as the recipient. 

The purchaser of the third place ticket designated Kris Malmborg of Fort Kent to sweep his way through the store on behalf of the food pantry. Malmborg’s son, Ethan, an eighth-grader at the school, sold the pantry tickets. 

Malmborg said he devised a plan minutes before taking off through the grocery store aisles. 

“I tried to picture where the non-perishable, most affordable and most likely to be used foods were located,” Kris Malmborg said. “I’m happy to announce, I packed three carts worth of food into one.”  

Malmborg gathered $465 worth of groceries, according to John’s Shurfine co-owner Jessica Audibert. 

“We’d done this before and it was always a good turnout and fun and a good fundraiser for a good cause. The kids have a great experience at Project Augusta and it should continue,” Audibert said. 

“Not only did the purchase of the tickets help a great school fundraiser but countless individuals who rely on the food bank,” Malmborg said.