Food Fight! Donate to Gleaners to Fight Childhood Hunger this Summer

The following information was submitted by Cindy Stewart/City of Troy.

You can make a difference for a hungry child this summer! Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan invites you to participate in the 18th annual Hunger-Free Summer Food Fight to Tackle Childhood Hunger from July 16-27.

The Food Fight is a contest to collect food and dollars to help feed hungry children. Area businesses, organizations and individuals are encouraged to donate to this food-drive program that benefits Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan. Gleaners distributes food to more than 400 agencies to help area families in need.

“Last year, the Food Fight raised $30,106 and 11,872 pounds of food which translates to 34,064 days of food,” Troy Community Affairs Director Cindy Stewart said. “Let’s see if we can top that this summer. Four pounds of food equals one day of food, or $1 equals one day of food.”

Let’s help feed the hungry children in our community. Food collection bins are at , the , and the .

Monetary donations will be matched dollar-for-dollar by Charter One Foundation, Ford Motor Company Fund, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Epoch Restaurant Group, American Specialty Oil Company and Joshua (Jim) and Eunice Stone Foundation to provide six meals per dollar for children who are at risk of hunger and malnutrition while school is out.

If you would like to make a secure online donation using a credit card, those contributions count toward our Food Fight total! To make an online donation that will be credited to the City of Troy Food Fight total go to: www.gcfb.org/cityoftroy.

Cash donations will also be accepted for this food drive.  Make checks payable to: Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan and drop off at the Community Affairs Department in City Hall (second floor). All donations are tax deductible. Only non-perishable food items should be donated. 

As the third-oldest food bank in the United States, Gleaners Community Food collects, warehouses, repacks and distributes many millions of pounds of food for over 400 local member agencies. These agencies pick up food from Gleaners in convenient amounts for use in serving meals, preparing food packages and stocking food pantries. Since 1977, Gleaners Community Food Bank has grown from distributing just one or two million pounds of food a year to more than 25 million pounds annually, equivalent to 65,000 meals per day.

This annual food drive has enjoyed the tremendous support of the City of Troy residents and businesses as well as many Oakland County businesses for more than a decade. We hope we can count on your participation to make the 2012 Food Fight to Tackle Childhood Hunger the most successful one ever! For more information, see www.gcfb.org.