MASON CITY – The Hawkeye Harvest Food Bank is kicking off their holiday fund raising campaign.
This past year the local food bank provided enough food to make 267,480 meals. That helped top feed 10,402 families and a total of 22,290 people.
A total of 637,691 pounds of food, 97,600 pounds of bread and sweets and 12,088 pounds of non-food items(soap, toilet paper, toothbrushes and toothpaste were given out to those who visited Hawkeye Harvest Food Bank this past year.
They also purchased and distributed 11,481 half gallons of milk to families and individuals.
The food bank provides enough food to make meals for four days for individuals and families from 60 communities within the 10 counties in North Iowa with 75.94% of those served being from Cerro Gordo County.
All who come to Hawkeye Harvest Food Bank must provide proof of residency and proof of income. Clients can come once each month to get their four days of food.
A tax deductible donation helps them to buy the food and non perishables that the food bank gives out each day to individuals and families in need. Hawkeye Harvest Food Bank is a 100% volunteer organization. A donation of twenty five dollars will purchase enough food to make over forty meals. A fifty dollar donation provides enough food for approximately eighty meals and one hundred dollars will help purchase enough food for about one hundred sixty meals.
There are no paid staff members. They have 137 volunteers who gave 11,624 hours of their time so your donation is used strictly for the purchase of food with a small amount used to maintain their facility at 122 South Adams.
Financial donations go a long ways with Hawkeye Harvest Food Bank since they are able to purchase the majority of food items from the Food Bank of Iowa at fourteen cents a pound.
Not everything can be purchased from the Food Bank of Iowa and local grocery stores provide substantial discounts on those very large orders for any items that are not available from the Food Bank of Iowa. Local and area food processors are very generous with their year round donations of meat and eggs.
Those who are unable to make a financial donation might be able to donate food. Their largest needs right now are cream of mushroom soup, cream of chicken soup, chicken noodle soup, stuffing, toilet paper, rice and diced tomatoes.
Another way to help Hawkeye Harvest Food Bank is to become a volunteer. They really need volunteers to help their clients from 1-4 any afternoon from Monday through Friday. A very short training is required.
Hawkeye Harvest Food Bank’s goal for this holiday season is $25,000. That’s an increase of $5,000 from last year.
You can learn more about Hawkeye Harvest Food Bank or you can make a donation by visiting them on Facebook.
