Last week, along with our partners at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Jefferson County, Watertown Savings Bank, Jefferson County, Advanced Business Systems, and Food Bank of CNY, we coordinated the Community Food Drive at the Watertown Walmart Supercenter with the aim to gather healthy food donations to help sustain under-resourced families and children during the summer months when school is not in session.
Food insecurity continues to be a significant challenge in our local communities, with pantries reporting record numbers of families seeking food assistance, so the timing of this drive – and community support – was critical. We are proud to announce that in total, over 5,700 items were collected and distributed to local pantries and food programs – more than double what we collected and distributed last year!
The event was successful thanks to the generous and coordinated efforts of the community as a whole, from donations of nonperishable food and personal care items to dedicated volunteers spending their time with us making sure donations were distributed evenly. We cannot thank everyone enough for pitching in to make sure under resourced families are supported during the summer months.
It was so heartwarming to see the amount of donations that rolled in from all over – churches, banks, grocery stores and everywhere in between. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of working so hard on an event and then seeing how it all comes together and how supportive the community is of every step of the process, it’s a truly beautiful thing. Volunteers kept morale up through the day and donors came and left with smiles on their faces, knowing they had helped to make a difference in our community.
Special thanks to the Watertown Daily Times, 7 News, and Tunes 92.5 for covering the event, Watertown Walmart Supercenter for allowing us to host the drive in their parking lot again, the Evans Mills Fire Department for providing the tables, Dunkin’ for donating breakfast for our volunteers, Food Bank of CNY for collecting and delivering donations to some of our smaller and more rural recipient pantries and organizations, and our partners who were with us every step of the way from event planning to successful execution and after action feedback to improve for next year.
And from the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU again to all who donated and volunteered at the Community Food Drive – we couldn’t have done it without you!
