Annual food drive kicks off in Lake County

United Way of Lake County has kicked off its annual spring Feed Lake County food drive.

The program and fundraiser runs through April 16. UWLC is reaching out to organizations and residents for assistance setting up and running food drives and fundraisers for this cause.

According to a UWLC news release, Lifeline’s 2-1-1 information referral helpline received 8,488 calls for food in the last year, a 68 percent increase over the 5,048 calls they received in 2011. Nearly 21,000 — 9.2 percent — of Lake County residents live in poverty, which included 6,142 children and 2,322 senior citizens. A total of 28,410 residents live with food insecurity.

All food and funds collected from the Feed Lake County program allow UWLC to help support more than 50 local food pantries that distribute to Lake County residents in need.

Requested food items include boxed or canned meals like mac and cheese; Tuna Helper; canned tuna and chicken; pasta and pasta sauce; peanut butter and jelly; cereal; canned fruit and vegetables; and canned soup and stew.

Other needed items include baby food and formula, and paper and personal hygiene products such as paper towels, toilet paper, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, soap and deodorant. As of Feb. 28, 100 companies and organizations have signed up to run food drives to help Feed Lake County, with more expected to be added, including 21 new organizations that have not run food drives in the past.

UWLC Director of Marketing and Communications Tami Lewis said last year’s Feed Lake County food drive collected 25,752 pounds of food, $28,147 in donations and $14,219 from its Dine to Donate program.

“The combined total provided enough food for 190,924 meals. This is a cause people really relate to. Due to the support and generosity of our community, we continued to collect food and funds throughout the year and ended up providing our local food pantries with enough food for 208,524 meals in 2016.

“This is an increase of 5,524 meals provided over 2015,” she said. “The hope is to continue to grow the amount of food we put into the community to feed our hungry again this year.”

UWLC is looking for support and is asking residents and organizations to consider helping in one of the following ways:

• Organize a food drive at your company, organization, church or neighborhood and donate the food items and money collected to United Way of Lake County. For more information, contact Jean Sency at 440-639-1286 or via email at jsency@uwlc.org.

• Make a monetary donation made out to United Way of Lake County, located at 9285 Progress Parkway in Mentor, or drop off any food donations to this location. Monetary donations also can be made online at www.uwlc.org/give or via a mobile phone by texting the word LAKE to 41444.

• Eat breakfast, lunch or dinner at one of over 40 participating restaurants on April 20 during UWLC’s Dine to Donate communitywide restaurant fundraiser. A list of all participating restaurants that will donate a portion of their day’s sales to “Feed Lake County” will be posted in the next few weeks at www.uwlc.org.

All food items collected during Feed Lake County will be distributed to more than 50 food pantries at the beginning of May. The money collected during Feed Lake County will be used to make food purchases throughout 2017 to help restock the food pantries later in the year.

“This is our 25th year of working to help feed Lake County,” said CEO and President of UWLC Jennifer McCarty. “With so many of our residents suffering from hunger, we are grateful for any and all efforts our residents, agencies and organizations are able to provide in collecting food and raising funds.

“Every $1 donated is enough to provide 4 meals, so if someone is able to make a $25 donation, that is enough to provide 100 meals. A $50 donation is enough to provide 200 meals. A nominal donation is a great way to make a big impact in the fight against hunger.”