People standing in the cold of February outside Freeport First Parish Church Congregational, and elsewhere in town, is a hallmark of the annual Freeport Community Services Freeze Out fundraiser. Scheduled this year for 10 a.m.-10 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 14, the Freeze Out is one of the largest fundraisers of the year for the Freeport Community Services Food Pantry and other FCS causes.

The Freeze Out wouldn’t be nearly as successful, though, without the Rotary Club “Stuff the Bus” food drive, held a mile north of the village in the Shaw’s supermarket parking lot. The goal is to fill a Regional School Unit 5 bus with as much food and personal items as possible from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, and then deliver the goods to the Freeport Community Center.

Michele Bois-Gilbody, secretary and past president of the Freeport Rotary Club, has participated in Stuff the Bus a few times.

“We speak to people as they enter Shaw’s and we solicit them to help us out,” Bois-Gilbody said. “We just bring the food in the bus in boxes and put them in the seats. We start out in back and go to the front. There’s also a collection bin inside Shaw’s. People are so dependent today. The Food Pantry is a vital part of the community.”

The Rotary Club also will accept cash donations to Freeport Community Services.

Rotarians will get help from the Boy Scouts, Freeport Community Library volunteers and from the Rotary youth service group, the Interact Club, from Freeport High School and Freeport Middle School

“I think this is really important to make sure that people who are out there in a position that may be challenging know there is some help out there for them,” Bois-Gilbody said.

Vernon Ross, assistant store manager at Shaw’s, agrees.

“You’ve got to give something back to the community,” Ross said.

Ross has only been at the Freeport Shaw’s for three months, but he’s familiar with Stuff the Bus events.

“We’ve done Stuff the Bus for years in other communities,” he said. “We were very successful at the Mill Creek store in South Portland.”

In addition to the collections, the mission of the Freeze Out it to raise awareness of the poverty and hunger in Maine and the critical need for services locally.

A Regional School Unit 5 bus again will be parked in the Shaw’s supermarket parking lot, ready for people to “Stuff the Bus” on Saturday. The event is part of the annual Freeport Commuity Services Freeze Out.