CITY, COUNTY AND LOCAL BUSINESSES HELP KICK OFF HARVEST FOR HUNGER 2001

West is this year’s Honorary Chair for the local Harvest for Hunger campaign. Founded in 1992, Harvest for Hunger is an annual community-wide food and funds drive that is locally coordinated in 19 Northeast Ohio counties. It is the second largest food drive of its type in the nation, raising more than $20 million worth of food in the past nine years. Each dollar and food item donated stays in the donor’s own community. Last year, the local campaign raised over a half-million pounds of food to help the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank fight hunger in our community.

Dan E. Sveda, executive director of the Foodbank explained that the food raised from the Harvest for Hunger campaign is distributed to local hunger centers served by the Foodbank that provide emergency food assistance to people in need. "Funds donated through Harvest for Hunger are used to purchase nutritious meals at reduced prices," Sveda stated.

Mayor Plusquellic and Williams exchanged jokes while announcing a challenge to all City and County employees to see which group could raise the most food and funds. This is the 5^th year for the challenge and for the past 3 years the County has won the bragging rights and a traveling plaque. Mayor Plusquellic vowed with a smile that this year the City would be victorious in the challenge.

Other businesses and organizations have jumped on the "challenge" bandwagon with the Corporate Volunteer Councils from both Summit and Stark Counties vying for top honors. Together the councils represent almost 60 businesses in the Akron-Canton area. Both councils promote workplace volunteerism.

WEWS NewsChannel 5 and WGAR FM 99.5 are providing extensive publicity for Harvest for Hunger 2001. The Beacon Journal and The Plain Dealer have inserted grocery bags in their Sunday, February 25 edition and encouraged their readers to fill these bags with groceries and take them to their nearest Acme, Apple’s, Dave’s, Giant Eagle, Heinen’s, or Tops supermarket.

Harvest for Hunger is also accepting money to purchase food in quantity at reduced prices. Because of the Foodbank’s purchasing power, each dollar donated is equal to two pounds of food. Checks may be made payable to: Harvest for Hunger and mailed directly to the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank, 546 Grant Street, Akron, Ohio 44311-1158.

A recent survey of people who use the services of hunger centers in our area underscores the plight of people needing assistance locally. More than 41% of people receiving emergency food assistance are children under the age of 18 and 51% of the people are able-bodied adults who are working in some capacity with an average household income of $8,500.

The Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank provides food to 345 food pantries, meal sites and institutions in Summit, Stark, Portage, Medina, Wayne, Tuscarawas, Carroll and Holmes counties in Ohio to help feed people in need. Each year, these hunger centers distribute 190,000 food orders and serve more than 2.5 million meals. Last year, the Foodbank distributed 7.7 million pounds of food to these organizations.

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