During the summer, donations decrease while the need remains high, especially among children.
On Tuesday, June 21, the Rhode Island Community Food Bank launched the 2016 Summer Food Drive to address the need for food assistance all summer long.
Food donations typically drop during the summer months while the need remains high, particularly for families of children who normally receive free or reduced-priced lunches at school. Food banks and pantries scramble to keep enough healthy, nutritious food on the shelves to support these families.
For more information on conducting a food drive, click here.
According to Food Bank CEO Andrew Schiff:
“Maintaining our food supply during the summer is critical because we know that so many families go without. So we ask people across Rhode Island – businesses, individuals and organizations – to donate food and funds to help their neighbors in need. Please do your part to ensure that no one goes hungry this summer.”
At the food drive launch, Summer Food Drive Chair Andy Moffit, First Gentleman of Rhode Island, put out a call to action:
“Ensuring that everyone has enough to eat during the summer months – especially children, our most vulnerable population – is a responsibility we share as a community. We need to come together and make access to food a priority. You can do that by helping support this year’s Summer Food Drive.”
The public is invited to pick up food drive posters and collection bins at the Food Bank on any weekday (except holidays) between 8 am and 5 pm. Financial donations also support the Summer Food Drive. Each dollar donated enables the Food Bank to provide three pounds of nutritious food.
Donations can be made online here.
Sponsors for this year’s Summer Food Drive include PGE Credit Union and Twin River. The Food Bank’s statewide network of food pantries and meal sites now serves 60,000 people every month, up from 33,000 in 2007. One in three served by the Food Bank is a child under the age of eighteen.
