Latter- day Saints donate nearly 42,000 pounds to Loveland food bank
Volunteers at the Food Bank of Larimer County’s Loveland warehouse got to unwrap an early Christmas gift Monday — nearly 41,700 pounds of shelf- stable food, trucked from Salt Lake City to Loveland by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints.
The donation, which the food bank’s communications director, Paul Donnelly, called “beyond generous,” was arranged by the church’s charitable arm after a conversation between a congregant and the food bank’s chief development officer, Heather Buoniconti.
Standing between freshly delivered crates of preserved vegetables, soups, pastas, peanut butter, pudding and other items, Will Taylor said that, after talking with Buoniconti, he reached out to a church official, who confirmed that the church could share a shipment of food with Northern Colorado.
“I don’t have a million dollars to give them, so I came down and talked to Heather about how we could help. And she said they’re usually long on the dry goods, but not right now,” he said. “So I called our regional welfare manager, and they checked. And now here it is.”
The church maintains “bishops’ storehouses” that are used to store food for those in need. Loveland’s parcel of food was driven from the church’s storehouse in Salt Lake City.
Donnelly said the donation came at a critical time, as events such as the National Association of Letter Carriers Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive have been canceled, and other drives, like Colorado State University’s Cans Around the Oval, drew more donations of cash than food this year. The food bank had collected 95,000 pounds of food by mid- November this year. The Latter- day Saints’ donation of about 41,700 pounds will go a significant way toward making up the difference, Donnelly said.