By Andy Dahn
BLOOMINGTON – The Bloomington branch of the Midwest Food Bank distributed over 50 million pounds of food to those in need last year, and the organization is now shifting its attention to an upcoming donation drive.
The food bank is teaming up with the McLean County Farm Bureau for a Meat Donation Drive from March 20th to 26th at the Bloomington Hy-Vee. Shoppers can make a $5 or $10 donation to their purchase and all donations of up to a total of $500 will be matched by the Farm Bureau. Director of Operations at the Midwest Food Bank Mike Hoffman said that money will then be used to purchase meat for the food bank.
“When the food pantries come through to pick up their foods and they see some meats that they can actually take back and give to their clients, the look in their eyes says it all,” Hoffman said. “It’s more than they could ever tell you.”
Hoffman said with the number of people coming to the food bank for assistance, foods like meat allow the organization to continue helping those in need.
“We’re finding that the majority of visitors are in between a job or just need a little bit of help,” said Hoffman. “They’re not exactly repeat visitors who are back every month. We need these programs so that we can help these people cross that hump to get to the next section of their life.”
The Bloomington-Normal community is one Hoffman said he can always count on.
“They always step up when the need is there,” Hoffman said. “They just need to know what that need is. We just want people to know that $5 or $10 will go a long way to help people get the food that they can’t afford to purchase very often.”
This is the fifth year of the Meat Donation program, which raised nearly $5000 in 2015.
Andy Dahn can be reached at andy.dahn@cumulus.com.
