Published: June 28, 2008 10:33 pm            

Food drive contributions flat

Group extending collection through today with hopes for more donations

At 7 p.m. Saturday, a group of volunteers collecting food to help area residents had hoped to close the door on a semi-trailer full of food and call it a good weekend.

But things haven’t gone as planned for the second annual Give for the Good food drive.

“I wanted to fill a semi this year, and right now, I’m only a tenth of the way there,” Deanna Ancil, a volunteer with Kokomo Urban Outreach, said an hour before Saturday’s designated end time for the collection effort.

Volunteers were on hand from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday at a trailer parked in front of Kroger in the Maple Crest Shopping Center accepting donations for Kokomo Urban Outreach and the Kokomo Rescue Mission.

She described last year’s collection as “awesome.” After filling the trailer halfway full in the collection’s first year, she set her sights on a full trailer this year.

But as the cost of everything has gone up, she said, “This year, we’re just not getting the donations.”

Because “there’s so much need in the community,” Ancil said they’re extending the food drive in hopes people will turn out today to donate. Non-perishable items can be dropped off from noon to 6 p.m. today in the Kroger parking lot.

“We’re not asking people to spend oodles, but if everybody gave a little, it will really add up,” Ancil said. “We don’t want people to need for meals. People shouldn’t have to worry about food.”

All donations will stay here and benefit local residents and families via assistance from the rescue mission and the outreach program.

“Those people who were struggling before are really struggling now,” Ancil said. “A lot of children and families are helped through these two organizations.”

The number of people seeking assistance from the outreach program has been slowly increasing over the course of the year, she said. In the last three months, the program has helped more than 200 families via its food pantry. That’s up from the same period last year, she said. The outreach also helps supplement a summer meal program for children.

Meanwhile, the rescue mission serves two meals daily.

“This is a tough time, especially for families,” she said.

        

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