United Way begins 11th annual Feed the Need food drive

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Since 2008, the United Way of Southern Kentucky has been instrumental in working to address an issue that has hampered this community.

“We might not want to believe it, but it is true right her in our community and the communities that we serve that there are people every day that are going hungry,” said Debbie Hills, President and CEO for United Way of Southern Kentucky.

Now, 11 years later, United Way continues to run its annual “Feed the Need” regional food drive to help benefit local food banks.

“It’s still growing and going strong,” Hills said. “Every year we are just more amazed by the generosity of the community and how many donations come in.”

Originally, the yearly food drive took place in just five counties and brought in around 20,000 donations. Both of those numbers have now grown to include seven counties – Allen, Barren, Butler, Hart, Logan, Simpson, and Warren – and more than three times the amount of donations.

“We’re now netting 60, 70, 80,000 items a year in the counties that are participating,” said Hills.

Hills added that the food banks would prefer non-perishable food donations, but there are multiple other high-demand items that these pantries are hoping to collect.

“High protein items – so canned meat, canned fish, peanut butter, and certainly canned vegetables and easy to prepare meals,” she said.

While donations are what will make the drive another success, volunteers are also needed to pass out flyers and collect donations at participating grocery stores in each of those seven counties on March 22nd and March 23rd. Volunteers will also be needed at collection sites to help with sorting and counting all of the donations.

The drive runs until March 23rd, and all donations collected will be distributed to the food banks in the county in which they were received.

For more information about Feed the Need, United Way encourages those interested in helping to visit their website.