Food For Families goal set at 70,000 pounds

The annual Food For Families Drive is scheduled for Friday, November 22, at Our Daily Bread Food Bank in Whitney.

All November donations will be counted toward the Lake Whitney Food Bank goal of 70,000 pounds. Volunteers will accept donations at the food bank, located at 100 Sims Drive in Whitney, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday.

Downtown merchants I Can Only Imagine and C&S Antiques & Treasures are also accepting donations, as well as the City of Whitney, Lake Whitney Chamber of Commerce, Brookshire’s and David’s Supermarket.

Any donation is appreciated, but the following non-perishable food products are most needed: canned vegetables, such as green beans and corn; boxed or bagged goods, such as Hamburger Helper, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, Rice-a-Roni, spaghetti, rice, and beans; canned meats, meals, beans and sauces like spaghetti sauce (no glass jars), chili, ravioli, tuna, chicken and Vienna Sausage; canned fruit, such as peaches, pears, fruit cocktails and mandarin oranges; and canned soup, such as chicken noodle soup, tomato soup, vegetable soup, chicken and rice soup, and vegetable beef soup.

The food bank also needs donations for the backpack program serving Whitney, Aquilla and Blum schools, where children are given food on Fridays to take home for the weekend. The backpack program’s most needed items are Chef Boyardee Variety Pack Cups, mac and cheese cups, fruit cups, pudding cups, Pop Tarts, cheese crackers, granola bars (no peanut butter) and drink boxes, such as Kool Aid Jammers and Capri-Suns.
The food bank does not need sugar, flour or baby foods and asks donors not to bring glass containers.

Monetary donations are greatly appreciated by the bank as well. The food bank works with Tarrant Area Food Bank (TAFB) to maximize financial contributions; on average, the Tarrant County bank supplies Our Daily Bread with two truckloads of needed commodities per month. However, some months there are many staples that are not available from TAFB and must be purchased from retail stores.

Monetary donations may be mailed to Our Daily Bread, c/o Lake Whitney Ministerial Alliance, P.O. Box 1502, Whitney, TX 76692 or made at either lakewhitneyministe rialalliance.org or whitney foodbank.org. Donors can also drop off a check at the food bank and receive a tax deduction receipt.

The Lake Whitney Ministerial Alliance food bank operates completely through donations and volunteers. No one is paid. All donations remain in our community and go directly to providing for those in need.

Food for Families is a joint annual project for the Longhorn Council of the Boy Scouts of America, H.E.B. Grocery Company and KWTX News 10 of Waco. KWTX will be televising some of the donations made during the day.