VAC annual food drive underway at local schools
Local city and county schools have partnered with the Voluntary Action Center every year for nearly two decades to host an annual canned food drive, with proceeds benefiting the VAC’s community kitchen and food pantry. This year’s drive is now underway at both Calhoun City and Gordon County schools.
In the past this drive was known to the community as ‘Cans From Fans,’ and community members would load their donated canned food items onto tractor trailers at school football games to be delivered to the center. More recently the drive has been held in the schools themselves. Students now bring their donated canned food items to their homeroom class to be counted and delivered at a later date.
“The homerooms with the most donations at each school get a pizza party,” said VAC Executive Director Stacy Long. “People who have businesses or who don’t want to send the canned food items to the schools for whatever reason can donate directly to the VAC. They can even bring items in and say they want them to count toward a certain school or homeroom class.”
Exactly 24,422 food items were donated in total from both county and city schools last year.
“That number is actually a little lower than what we’ve gotten in years before,” she said. “I would love to see us hitting those numbers again in a year like this one.”
The VAC’s food pantry program provided 2,926 families with food bags in 2019, reaching nearly 7,000 individuals in Calhoun and Gordon County. In that same year, the community kitchen served 30,421 free, hot meals to community members in need. None of it would have been possible without the annual food drive, which Long said provides about 85 percent of the food served at the VAC throughout the year.
Donations will be accepted at city schools until this Friday, Dec. 6. The donation deadline at county schools is the following Friday, Dec. 13. All items must be delivered to the schools or the VAC by these dates to be counted toward winning the homeroom pizza party.
The Voluntary Action Center is located at 343 S. Wall St. in Calhoun. Call 706-629-7283 to set up a time to donate food items in person at the center.