Freestore Foodbank distributes food to 600 residents
Lead Summary
By
Rory Ryan-hcpress@cinci.rr.com
More than 160 area families and approximately 600 individuals received an early Christmas gift Tuesday morning, courtesy of the Freestore Foodbank.
Families began registering around 9:30 a.m. at Highland County Community Action, Inc., in Hillsboro, while volunteers unloaded boxes of nonperishable foods from a mobile food pantry.
The Freestore Foodbank has made multiple visits to Highland County this year, said Anita Waver, Freestore agency relations manager.
According to Julia Wise, HCCAO executive director, this was the first mobile pantry food distribution at Community Action. “A lot of organizations helped us locate families with real needs,” Wise said. “The Turning Point program, Help Me Grow, Job and Family Services, One-Stop, and Haag Motors, all helped us.”
Wise said the Freestore Foodbank has been offering assistance to area families due to Highland County’s high unemployment rate (almost 16 percent) and job losses related to the DHL closing and other industry shutdowns.
Myrita Craig, public relations specialist for the Freestore Foodbank, agreed that Highland County was a target area for food distribution.
“People are struggling, but more so in Highland County,” Craig told The Highland County Press. “Whenever we can, we try to get food to the people who need it most,” she said.
Craig said the Freestore Foodbank partners with agencies like Community Action to organize its food distributions. The foodbank serves 20 counties in southern Ohio, northern Kentucky and southeast Indiana.
In addition to local volunteers and agencies such as Community Action, other contributors include Kraft Foods, Kroger and Community Markets.
According to its Web site, the Freestore Foodbank, based in Cincinnati, distributes 10 million pounds of food annually in 20 counties in Ohio,
Kentucky and Indiana through a network of more than 400 local member agencies such as soup kitchens and shelters, food pantries, churches, daycare and senior centers, and many other community and social service organizations.
The Freestore Foodbank adheres to these core values: “We will not accept hunger. We embrace diversity. We are in service with our neighbors. Those we serve can succeed independently. We collaborate with other in our region.”
For more information or to contribute to the Freestore, log on to www.freestorefoodbank.org or call Anita Waver at (513) 482-4523.[[In-content Ad]]
Families began registering around 9:30 a.m. at Highland County Community Action, Inc., in Hillsboro, while volunteers unloaded boxes of nonperishable foods from a mobile food pantry.
The Freestore Foodbank has made multiple visits to Highland County this year, said Anita Waver, Freestore agency relations manager.
According to Julia Wise, HCCAO executive director, this was the first mobile pantry food distribution at Community Action. “A lot of organizations helped us locate families with real needs,” Wise said. “The Turning Point program, Help Me Grow, Job and Family Services, One-Stop, and Haag Motors, all helped us.”
Wise said the Freestore Foodbank has been offering assistance to area families due to Highland County’s high unemployment rate (almost 16 percent) and job losses related to the DHL closing and other industry shutdowns.
Myrita Craig, public relations specialist for the Freestore Foodbank, agreed that Highland County was a target area for food distribution.
“People are struggling, but more so in Highland County,” Craig told The Highland County Press. “Whenever we can, we try to get food to the people who need it most,” she said.
Craig said the Freestore Foodbank partners with agencies like Community Action to organize its food distributions. The foodbank serves 20 counties in southern Ohio, northern Kentucky and southeast Indiana.
In addition to local volunteers and agencies such as Community Action, other contributors include Kraft Foods, Kroger and Community Markets.
According to its Web site, the Freestore Foodbank, based in Cincinnati, distributes 10 million pounds of food annually in 20 counties in Ohio,
Kentucky and Indiana through a network of more than 400 local member agencies such as soup kitchens and shelters, food pantries, churches, daycare and senior centers, and many other community and social service organizations.
The Freestore Foodbank adheres to these core values: “We will not accept hunger. We embrace diversity. We are in service with our neighbors. Those we serve can succeed independently. We collaborate with other in our region.”
For more information or to contribute to the Freestore, log on to www.freestorefoodbank.org or call Anita Waver at (513) 482-4523.[[In-content Ad]]