Annual food drive meets 15,000-pound goal

After four years of trying, the Monroe County United Ministries has finally met its goal to collect 15,000 pounds of food and hygiene products during its weekend-long Each One, Feed One Community Food Drive.

This year’s food drive raised 16,305 pounds of food and hygiene products.

“I think it went really well. And, despite the economic crisis, people were as generous as always,” Rebecca Stanze, development coordinator for the Ministries, said.

It distributes more than 100,000 pounds of food per year, Stanze said, and generally  holds their food drives for a few months.

For the annual August food drive, MCUM asks about 250 volunteers to spend a few hours of their weekend asking for donations outside of grocery stores around Bloomington, including Kroger and Marsh. Only six spots for volunteers were left empty this weekend, Stanze said.

On Sunday, Margo Winters and her two daughters, Clairessa and Natasha, stood outside of the Kroger on College Avenue for the second year in a row. They handed out lists of goods the Emergency Food Pantry needs.

“They said we did good last year, so they asked us to come again,” Winters said.

Though Stanze seemed unsure if the food drive would bring in the goal amount, Winters said she believed they could reach it.

“Last year we got more,” Winters said. “Saturday’s the better day, when all the IU students are coming. They come out carrying half-gallons of vodka, and I say, ‘If you can spend money on that, you can donate.’ Then they go back in and bring us some cans.”

Near the middle of their three-hour shift, Winters’ cart received an upsurge of donations. Three people gave bags full of goods.

“You must have gotten everything on that list,” Winters said to a woman who gave three plastic bags of food.

“I’m happy to see that,” she said. “We usually don’t get laundry soap, and we got some.”

Around 2:35 p.m., two other volunteers stopped by to pick up some of the donations and take them back to put on the shelves at the pantry.

“This is the biggest haul so far today,” one of the volunteers said, looking at the shopping cart full of donations.

At one of the Kroger locations Saturday, Stanze said one volunteer saw a few employees pushing carts full of food toward the Food Drive. A woman who wished to donate the food anonymously gave it to the employees and left through another door.

“We had a lot of positive stories,” Stanze said. “It’s nice to see volunteers interacting with different kinds of people and the general willingness of folks to be supportive.”