LAKE COUNTY, Ohio — EDITOR’S NOTE: The video above previously aired on 3News on June 9, 2022, when the Greater Cleveland Food Bank held a drive-thru food distribution.
The United Way of Lake County is hosting its largest annual food distribution on Thursday, June 23.
Food pantries will come to the United Way of Lake County on Thursday and pick up the goods that will be distributed as a way to try to solve the problem of food insecurity in Lake County.
According to United Way of Lake County officials, the $87,000 is part of the Food into the Community to Help Feed Hunger campaign, which is being distributed in the following ways:
United Way of Lake County (UWLC) will distribute $30,000 in food and paper products to over 30 Lake County food pantries on Thursday, June 23, 2022.
An additional $57,000 in food collected from UWLC’s annual spring Feed Lake County food drive and fundraiser was distributed this past May.
The Feed Lake County fundraiser also raised over $60,000 in cash, $25,000 of which was donated by Buyer’s Products Company in Mentor. The organization matched all cash donations up to a total of $25,000. Some of the funds were used to support this Thursday’s food distribution. The remaining funds will be used to help re-stock the food pantries later in the year.
The items that will be donated to food pantries include juices, cereals, breakfast foods, soups, pasta, tuna, canned chicken, boxed mashed potatoes and bottled water.
Volunteers from the Lake County Board of DD will help food pantries with heavy lifting and the loading of food.
United Way of Lake County decided to do this in response to recent Feeding America data.
According to Feeding America, 11.8% (27,130) of Lake County residents live in food insecurity. Since COVID-19, these numbers have risen by 9%. 14.8% of children in Lake County are experiencing food insecurity, which has risen 11% since COVID-19.
More information on the United Way of Lake County can be found at uwlc.org or by calling 440-352-3166.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The video above previously aired on 3News on July 14, 2020, when the Greater Cleveland Food Bank distributed food in Lake County.