MASON CITY – A bedrock of support for the hungry in Mason City has reported that it helped hundreds of people last month.
According to the Hawkeye Harvest Food Bank, the organization helped 1599 people in October.
“October was a very busy month,” Hawkeye stated on its Facebook page.
The Hawkeye Harvest Food Bank was organized in the fall of 1981 as a community project to meet a growing need for food in North Iowa. That need has not diminished over the years, as Hawkeye continues to seek the help of citizens and businesses in rounding up non-perishable food items.
“Those we helped came from 27 different communities in North Iowa. This was an increase of well over 500 people from last October,” Hawkeye reported Sunday.
The food bank has picked up lots of food from area businesses in recent days, including Southbridge Mall, Bliss Bridal and Formal Wear, North Iowa Community Credit Union, the MCHS Concert Choir and the Jefferson Cub Scouts, among others.
On a typical week, The food bank provides more than 10,000 pounds in groceries, meats, bread, baked goods and non perishables items, it said last week.
Again, the food bank says that the need to donate food for the hungry is only getting more urgent.
“We will need a huge increase in food collections,” the food bank said Sunday. “The food we collect in years past would typically last until the May postal food drive. That might not be the case this year with the major increase in food distributions we have seen the past several months.”
Financial and food donations can be taken to the Hawkeye Harvest Food Bank, located at 22 North Georgia Avenue.
