AKRON, Ohio — With more people facing food insecurity amid the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s an ongoing need for more help right here in Northeast Ohio.
The Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank is launching its 30th annual Harvest for Hunger campaign with a special virtual kickoff set for Wednesday morning. There's also a matching gift challenge, which means all online donations made now through Feb. 19 will be matched up to $25,500. You can make a donation HERE.
“If the match challenge is met, it will help provide the equivalent of 204,000 meals for the local community,” officials said in a press release.
Dan Flowers, President and CEO of the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank, said the recovery process from the impact of this pandemic could take years.
“The community was tremendously generous in its support of our network’s hunger-relief efforts,” Flowers said. “Because of this, we have a unique opportunity to meet the urgent needs of this moment, continue our emergency COVID-19 response and recovery efforts and confront the challenges ahead.”
The Foodbank said it's also able to waive all shared fees for its network of hunger-relief partners this year.
"The Foodbank's investments will provide more than $4.3 million in additional food and capacity directly to its hunger-relief partners," officials said.
The Foodbank said that means they will be distribute more than $40 million worth of food and essential items at no cost to charities this year.
“The Foodbank and its partners have always shared the cost of procuring, storing and distributing food to the community, with the Foodbank incurring the majority of the expenses,” officials said. “But because of the community’s generosity in 2020 and the tremendous support of the Harvest for Hunger Campaign, the Foodbank is able to waive these fees, allowing food programs to invest in their capacity and other resources to better serve the community.”
Editor's Note: Video in the player above was originally published on Feb. 25, 2020.
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