ThisWeek CW 06/14/2012
The Madison Township Fire Department will host its second annual Pack the Pantry event to benefit the Canal Winchester and Groveport Madison food pantries.
From 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday, June 19, residents will be able to drop off food donations at the Canal Winchester Firehouse, 6600 Gender Road, and the Groveport Firehouse, 4567 Firehouse Lane, for distribution to the respective school districts.
“We’ll have volunteers to collect the food and people will be able to drive through so they don’t even have to get out of their car. We’ll just take it out for them and they’ll be on their way,” Canal Winchester Human Services Administrator Penny Miller said.
Groveport is participating in the event for the first time this year. Miller said she is hoping for even more donations than last year.
“Last year, we collected about 1,200 items and we threw the event together quickly without publicity,” she said. “However, it takes about 1,500 items a week to meet our distribution needs just at the Canal Winchester location, so we didn’t quite collect a week’s worth of food last year.”
Miller said this year, organizers hope to collect more than 5,000 items.
“Recently, the Scouting for Food event collected 6,000 items, and for some people, that is all they can give, but the people we serve need to eat every day. Past donations are wonderful, but if it is possible, we need continued donations,” she said.
According to Miller, summer is the most difficult time of the year for food pantries because children do not have access to free lunch or breakfast programs at school and this puts an additional strain on families that are already struggling.
“We hope that as people are driving to work or around town doing their daily errands that they’ll take a moment to stop by the firehouse and make a donation to the food pantry,” Miller said. “Financial donations are also appreciated and will be used to purchase food or other items that are not normally donated directly.”
Additional information is available by calling the Community Food Pantry at 614-834-3888.