Realtors to aid Community Food Connection at Food City
From Staff ReportsOriginally published: November 04. 2009 3:01AM
Last modified: November 04. 2009 9:44PM
About 50 Realtors have volunteered to hand out flyers and collect donations at the Food City on Hall Road in Alcoa 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, Saturday and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday for the Community Food Connection.
This will be last big grocery store food drive of the year, said Larry Ladd, special projects director for the Community Food Connection. The goal is to collect $16,000 in food donations in three days.
The need for donations is growing. The number of residents served by the Food Connection has doubled over the past year-and-a-half to more than 5,000 per month.
A record number of people were helped in October -- 5,457. Of those, 1,315 were children and 122 were with new families served by the Food Connection, Ladd said.
Contributions consist of nonperishable items such as canned goods, peanut butter, pasta, cereal and rice. Community Food Connection clients can get a large grocery bag of food twice a month. The size of the bag is in relation to the size of the family.
The Food Connection has no paid staff, no vehicles and no expense allowances. Any monetary help from the community goes for the purchase of food, rent, utilities and basic expenses. Assistance also comes from Second Harvest and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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