Story County residents came together in a countywide effort through United Way of Story County (UWSC) to stock local food pantries going into the summer months. One in four children go hungry in Story County and without school lunches, they have one less meal they can depend on. UWSC fights childhood hunger through the LIVE UNITED Food Drive and also through the summer enrichment programs throughout Story County.
Thanks to the community, this year’s ninth annual food drive broke a new record with a total of 13,848 pounds of food and supplies and over $5,000 donated. The donations were distributed to thirteen food pantries in Ames, Cambridge, Colo, Huxley, Maxwell, McCallsburg/Zearing, Nevada, Slater/Sheldahl and Story City.
Many of the pantries purchase food from the Food Bank of Iowa for as little as 14 cents per pound, which stretches the cash donations even further. With the amount of money raised this year that means more than 36,000 pounds of food can be added to what was already collected.
The food drive ran for almost two weeks and had 99 local organizations that served as collection sites for donations.
Photo: (left to right) Chris Vry, Sue Johnson, and Casey Hurlburt collect donated items for the 2017 LIVE UNITED Food Drive.
UWSC is a strategic leader in building countywide partnerships to identify needs and to develop, support and evaluate effective human services, especially in the areas of education, income and health, for our diverse community.