As written by Matt Gray, Published by NJ.com – March 9th, 2017 — The 12th annual “Gloucester County Cares About Hunger” food drive collected more than 17,000 pounds of food, United Way of Gloucester County officials announced this week.
The food, which will provide 18,028 meals to area families, was donated to the Food Bank of South Jersey.
Last year’s drive collected around 12,000 pounds.
The United Way partners with the county’s Human Services Advisory Council and the People for People Foundation to conduct this event, which ran from Feb. 27 to March 5 this year.
Fifty-five organizations participated in this year’s drive, in addition to individuals who dropped off items at the United Way headquarters on Monday.
Many of the organizations promoted their drives through emails and posters and, in some cases, employee activities.
Glacier-Garlock Bearings, Inc. had a competition among their departments, resulting in more than 7,100 pounds of food collected. ExxonMobil Research and Engineering provided each employee with a brightly-colored cloth grocery bag with the food drive slogan on it and they were returned with donated items.
Volunteers from the American Red Cross, Investors Bank and People for People Foundation assisted in picking up items that some participants could not deliver.
About 300 pounds of pet food was also collected as part of the drive. That will be distributed by a local food pantry to assist families in feeding their pets.
Since the food drive began in 2006, 161,882 pounds of food has been collected as part of this effort.
“We are so grateful to all who participated in this year’s food drive,” said United Way Executive Director Michael Gower. “It is because of them and their support that many of our neighbors in need will have access to the food that they desperately need. The United Way of Gloucester County is proud to coordinate this year’s drive and will be looking at ways to improve future collections to help more people.”
To learn more about the United Way’s local efforts, go online to uwgcnj.org or email Donna Fanticola at donnafanticola@uwgcnj.org.
Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook.