Volunteers fill up donated clothes by the truckload for Afghan refugees

Minnesotans packed up winter clothes for Afghan families and donated them to a clothing drive on Saturday.

Team Rubicon, a veteran-led disaster response nonprofit organization, and the Minnesota Twins partnered up to host the drive.

Most Afghan refugees left everything behind, arriving in the United States with just the clothes on their backs.

Minnesotans stepped up to the plate at Target Field by donating clothes to keep Afghan families warm this winter.

"When we heard that we could donate clothes to the Afghan refugees, it was really near and dear to our heart," said Nila Chakraborty, who participated in the clothing drive.

Chakraborty went the extra mile by donating cultural clothing that might remind refugees of home.

"India is very close to Afghanistan and we know their culture is very similar to ours. We have a lot of Indian clothes as well,” she said.

Chakraborty said the moment Afghan families landed in the U.S., she was looking for an opportunity to pitch in.

The goal of the clothing drive was to fill up an entire semi-truck with winter clothing for Afghan refugee families. Within 15 minutes of the drive being open, community members brought enough items to fill the semi-truck from front to back.

“As a Minnesotan, this makes me incredibly proud. I mean, we’re four minutes into this drive and we already have a full parking lot almost,” Team Rubicon CEO Art delaCruz said.

The clothes and other items will be delivered to refugees in Fort McCoy in Wisconsin and Camp Atterbury in Indiana.

Organizers said pitching in to help is the Minnesota way.

"I’m actually not that shocked because of that very thing, we take care of each other. That’s Minnesota. Minnesota nice,” said Jason Meszaros, Minnesota Twins director of technology infrastructure and information security.