By Audrey Posten
The CPKC Holiday Train will return to Clayton County on Monday, Nov. 24, making evening stops in both Marquette and Guttenberg. It will be the train’s first time in the area since 2023, after the route changed last year.
It’s the 27th year overall for the Holiday Train, which continues to raise money, food and awareness for food banks across its network through dazzling lighted cars and musical entertainment. The Marquette stop will be at the marina parking lot at 5:20 p.m. The train will arrive in Guttenberg, on the east side of the Schiller Street crossing, at 7:15 p.m.
Rock band Smash Mouth—known for 1990s and early 2000s hits like “All Star,” “Walkin’ on the Sun” and “I’m a Believer” from the Shrek soundtrack—will serenade the crowd along with Canadian rock singer JJ Wilde.
“It’ll be dark, so you’ll be able to see the lights. The train is beautiful,” said Clayton County Food Shelf Supervisor Utoni Ruff. “Smash Mouth is playing, and that seems to be a big drawing card. Santa will also be there with cookies. It’s a lot of fun.”
Admission to the Holiday Train is a non-perishable food item or monetary donation for the Clayton County Food Shelf, which counts the stop as one of its biggest fundraising opportunities. In 2023, when it stopped only in Marquette, the CPKC Holiday Train netted the food shelf 2,449 pounds of food and $12,656 in monetary donations.
It’s even more important this year with the loss of November SNAP benefits due to the federal government shutdown.
“I started getting bombarded about the last Monday in October—Oct. 27. Usually, the last weekend of the month is my busiest weekend because SNAP comes out in the first half of the month. My numbers went way up,” said Ruff.
The Clayton County Food Shelf went from serving an average of 150 households per month to 20 to 21 households per day since Nov. 3.
“Since this got really hairy and they were worried about losing their SNAP that first week in November, I went through four times as much of my bread and milk and also four times as much of my non-food, which is toiletry/hygiene. And, of course, the rest of it. The rest of it, I’m either buying in bulk or it is being donated,” Ruff shared. “It takes a lot of labor, a lot of dollars.”
Ruff is appreciative of volunteers—both groups and individuals—who have helped meet the demand ahead of the busy holiday season. Donations have also been coming in.
“My donations are up,” she noted, “but it’s hard to tell because my donations are always up in November and December because of the holidays.”
Ruff said the food shelf was lucky to have recently received its latest grant from the Upper Mississippi Gaming Corporation: $15,000 to purchase food and non-food.
But what will the organization do when some of those funds that stretch into the new year are immediately used to compensate for the past month’s demand?
“Just hope for more donations,” Ruff said. “And that people show up to the Holiday Train.”
For Holiday Train attendees who would like to donate food, unsweetened cereal is needed, as are dry dinners like Hamburger and Tuna Helper, canned fruit, peanut butter and tuna.
Toiletry and hygiene items, which cannot be purchased with SNAP benefits, are also welcome.
“I try to give everybody six things in the toiletry/hygiene, and that’s toilet paper, toothpaste, shampoo, hand soap, laundry soap and dish soap,” Ruff said.
But just being at the Holiday Train stop is important too, she stressed.
“At the Holiday Train, I need the head count. I need [people] to come to the Holiday Train,” Ruff said. “I’ve been so thankful for CPKC all these years. To keep them coming back, that’s what I need.”
