Food bank’s Fill Our Fleet – Feed Our Hungry event at all Publix stores Sept. 18
For many years, the well-received National Association of Letter Carrier Food Drive held each May stocked the shelves at the Harry Chapin Food Bank for months.
This year, their reserves are almost gone, said Harry Chapin Food Bank Associate Director Joyce Jacobs.
“We’ve had record distribution of food over the past year. In June alone we distributed 1,200,000 pounds of food,” she said.
On Sunday, Sept. 18, the food bank will team with Lee County Transit, who is deploying its fleet of buses to all Publix locations throughout Lee County to collect food for the food bank.
“The need is so incredible. We are out of that food already, so this drive is important. We appreciate the generosity of our communities,” Jacobs said.
It will be the third year for the “Fill Our Fleet – Feed Our Hungry” event.
“We have put together a team of almost 150 volunteers to help us on Sunday the 18th at all 33 Publix stores,” said LeeTran Marketing Director Joann Haley. “The first year that we did it we crossed our fingers that it would be successful and we did it. The second year we saw a 50 percent increase in collections, so we have an ambitious goal of 100,000 pounds of food this year.
“Volunteers include all kinds of LeeTran people and other county departments and community groups, such as schools, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, 4-H and more. It’s heartwarming that so many in the community are willing to help,” Haley said.
LeeTran buses will park in the Publix parking lots for shoppers to fill bins with nonperishable food. The buses will then caravan to the Harry Chapin Food Bank’s warehouse, where volunteers will unload the donations.
Several Publix stores are selling pre-bagged bags of nonperishable food that shoppers can pay for at the cash registers to help stuff the buses.
The Harry Chapin Food Bank solicits, collects and stores quality food for distribution to families in need through a network of 186 local non-profit agencies in Lee, Collier, Hendry, Charlotte and Glades counties, that provide food to more than 30,000 people monthly.
More than 1 million pounds of food are distributed monthly. For every dollar donated, about $6 in food value goes back to the community.
In the past fiscal year, The Harry Chapin Food Bank distributed 12.5 million pounds of food and other grocery products – this was a 31 percent increase over the previous year.
For additional information about or to contribute financially to the Harry Chapin Food Bank, call 334-7007 or go to: harrychapinfoodbank.org.