ThisWeek CW 09/29/2011
The Canal Winchester Food Pantry scored big again this year with the Football for Food campaign at Canal Winchester High School’s Sept. 9 home football game against Marion-Franklin High School.
“We collected over 11,000 food and household items like canned goods, toilet paper and toothpaste,” Canal Winchester Human Services executive director Penny Miller said.
The Football for Food campaign was paired for the first time with a schoolwide Pizza for Food campaign at CWHS. According to Miller, the Pizza for Food campaign allows students to donate items for the pantry during the school week for the chance to win a class pizza party.
“We’re very grateful to all of the students who participated in our Pizza for Food campaign, where we got over 5,000 items donated,” she said. “We also collected about $2,000 in cash at the football game. The donated items and cash are about equal to last year, and we’re thankful for that, because we were fearful that with the economy, the donations wouldn’t be as high as last year.”
Miller said a couple of years ago, this amount of food would have sustained the pantry for a year. However, because of an increase in the demand for help last year, this amount of food will sustain the pantry through the end of the year.
“Our anticipation and hope is that this will take us through to January,” Miller said. “Just a few years ago, we would’ve gotten a full year out of this much food.
“We appreciate that the community stepped up and came to the game and supported the food pantry; we are very grateful. We look forward to moving into our new location and being able to serve the community even more than we do now.”
The food pantry held an open house Sept. 14 at its proposed new location at 360 W. Waterloo St. Barring any unforeseen issues, the pantry hopes to move from David’s United Church of Christ to the new location by January and operate under the oversight of Canal Winchester Human Services, Miller said.
“We’re working on an acquisition agreement right now, which will effectively give Human Services the administration of the food pantry and officially make it one of our programs,” she said. “I anticipate that transition to happen by November.”
For more information about the food pantry, call Human Services at (614) 834-3888.