The Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore is once again working to meet a growing need through the annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive.
"What's really, really valuable about this is the timing of it, uh, coming in the month of May, we're getting to the point where schools are starting to let out soon. We're getting into summer hunger. We're getting into those additional challenges," says Jeremy Rodden, Director of Community Engagement .
On Saturday, Letter carriers are picking up bags of non-perishable food left by mailboxes as part of the drive, which is the second largest food drive in the region.
Jeremy Rodden, Director of Community Engagement with the Food Bank, said this year's goal is to collect 40,000 pounds of food. Those donations will go to more than 200 partner pantries as early as Monday.
Rodden shares that the drive comes at a critical time as many residents navigate inflation and high gas prices.
"We are definitely seeing that as an impact where people are having to decide between a tank of gas and, and a bag of groceries, um, when they didn't have to do that as recently as 6 months ago, um, so you know this is just, uh, similar to the, the government shutdown we're, we're dealing with another man-made disaster that is creating these issues and we're just hoping that we can get through them and the food bank will be here to support throughout while we can," says Rodden.
If you were not able to donate goods, you can still help by making an online donation .
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