ThisWeek CW 06/06/2013
The Madison Township Fire Department hopes to prove once again that it can fight more than just fires when it hosts the third annual Pack the Pantry event to fight hunger.
The Gender and Hamilton Road firehouses have both partnered with the Groveport and Canal Winchester community food pantries to help restock their shelves as summer starts and the pantries face what has historically been their most difficult season of the year.
“Statistically, the pantries suffer the most in the summer due to an influx of kids who are out of school and not receiving free breakfast and free lunch programs,” Canal Winchester Human Services Administrator Penny Miller said.
“Our food drive collections tend to peak around the holidays and are always down in the summer, which is when we have the largest number of clients.”
According to Miller, two recent food drives were successful, but given the increasingly high demand for assistance, those events only kept the pantry stocked for a couple of weeks each.
“Last year, we were going through about 1,200 items a week, which is what we collected for the Canal Winchester Community Food Pantry at the last Pack the Pantry event,” she said. “This year, we’re hoping to collect at least 2,000 items, which is what we’re going through each week now.
“We greatly appreciate all the donations from the April Scouting for Food event and the May U.S. Post Office food drive, but unfortunately, we’ve already gone through those items.”
Pack the Pantry is designed to make it as easy as possible for people to donate non-perishable food items to both area pantries, Miller said.
“We’ve got it set up as sort of a drive-through where people can put their donations in their car and they don’t even have to get out. The firefighters will take whatever the donations are out of the vehicle for them and then they can drive away and enjoy the rest of their day,” Miller said.
Pack the Pantry is scheduled from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday, June 11. All donations made at the Gender Road firehouse will be given to the Canal Winchester Community Food Pantry and all donations made at the Hamilton Road firehouse will go to the Groveport Food Pantry.
More information is available from Canal Winchester Human Services at 614-834-3888 or the Groveport Food Pantry at 614-354-2760.
“After this food drive, our next one isn’t until September, the Football for Food program, so we’re hoping we really do pack the pantry on Tuesday,” Miller said.