The Brillion News CHILTON – Professional Plating Inc. (PPI) is digging into work with the Salvation Army of Calumet County in Chilton. 

The Salvation Army location has gone through a 15-month process to build seven garden plots in the back of its building. The seven plots have been ‘adopted’ by area businesses and families, two of them by PPI. The vegetables grown are donated back to the center to help those in Calumet County. 

“It’s like a gift that keeps on giving all summer long,” Salvation Army Director Adriana Hilblink said. 

The area of the building was not being used until the plan was conceptualized last spring. 

“I thought what a great way to utilize that space of the building,” Hilblink said. 

The garden plots are not the first time that PPI has teamed up with the Salvation Army. This past December, PPI employees started working with the Salvation Army Bread of Life Center. They raised more than $1,700 over a combined 32 hours by ringing bells as part of the Red Kettle Campaign. 

“At that time we asked what other opportunities there are throughout the year that the Professional Team could continue to give back,” PPI’s Kerry Behnke said. “This fueled several opportunities.” 

In March, PPI held a personal hygiene drive with a “winter warm-up day” where they sold bowls of soup to raise money for the Salvation Ar- my’s “Help the Homeless” drive. The company donated a truckload full of personal hygiene items along with $750 from the soup. 

“They have done a great job building the plots and getting local companies and families to adopt the plots, plant and raise the vegetables to be given back to the center to help people in need,” Behnke said. 

The PPI team has been responsible for the planting and upkeep of the plots before they are donated back to the center. 

“I’m super excited about Professional Plating because they really stepped up to the plate,” Hilblink said. The other five adopters are Worthington Industries, Chilton Kiwanis Club and two current Salvation Army families who cannot grow vegetables while living in their apartment. 

The center hopes to spruce the area up with mural paintings on the wall behind the plots by next summer. They also use “green” efforts to conserve water. 

The work is year-round for the Salvation Army. EconoFoods in Bril- lion donates bakery items twice a week, as does Dick’s Family Foods in Sherwood. 

The Chilton location currently serves 190 families and more than 600 people with numbers increasing in the past year. 

“The need is definitely there,” Hil- blink said.