Feeding the 2020 Feed The Dream

Tomorrow- January 20th, the 3rd Monday in July is important- it is MLK, Martin Luther King Jr Day.  A family in our community, the Mintons, launched a special effort 8 years ago.  Feed the Dream's mission is to use the occasion of the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday to help alleviate hunger in Licking County through art, education and most importantly - service.     The Holiday offers an opportunity for Granville citizens to help those less fortunate by collecting nonperishable food and money and donating it to the Food Pantry Network of Licking County.    In our life on Newark-Granville Road we do what we can to support the effort and spread the word!  Family Philanthropy at work - thank you Minton Family. Thank you King family, thank you Granville area families!

We hope you will join us tomorrow or on-line with a gift! Some important points to share, the why to engage and give!

·      The Food Pantry Network can purchase many food items for $0.08 a pound

·      Food stamps cannot be used for personal sundries such as: soap, shampoo, deodorant, shaving cream, feminine hygiene products

·      Project Goal - Collect 2 tons of food and $7,500.  We took a look and found 3 bags of food to deliver tomorrow- why do we have two containers of Tang in the pantry?

·      Over the last 8 years FTD food drive has provided FPN with the food and funds equivalent of 400 tons of food!

People can participate in one of five ways

1.     Donate food or funds  on Monday January 20^th from 9 am to 8 pm at Ross’ market

2.     Contribute online to FPN at www.onedayoneton.org. For $12.25 you can feed a person for a week.

3.     Purchase a $1 donation card at Ross’ or buy bagged food at Ross and bring to the food drive!

4.     Share our social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat) content with the hashtags #FeedTheDream and #GranvilleOH

Statistics

• 35% of households served by FPN include children

·      28% of households served by FPN include seniors

·      25% of individuals served are under 18

• In 2018 over 63,000 families and 320,000 individuals requested emergency food assistance from FPN
• In 2018 the amount of food distributed by FPN surpassed 4,400,000 pounds.

·      In Licking County 6,600 children are not sure where their next meal is coming from

·       FPN provides 40,000 meals per month for children

·      1 in 6 Ohioans (1.9 million) struggle with hunger

·      1 in 5 Ohio children (575,000) struggle with hunger

·      In Ohio 43% of Households receiving SNAP benefits (formerly food stamps) have children

·      12.9 million American children lived in food insecure households

·      13.3 million or approximately 18% of American children lived in poverty

·      8% of seniors (just under 5 million) struggle with hunger

·      9% of seniors (nearly 5 million) lived below the poverty line.

·      63% of senior households served by  the Feeding America Network are forced to choose between food & medical care

·      2.7 million rural American households face hunger

• Individuals utilizing the food pantry are referred and screened carefully.  Individuals use the pantry in emergency and supplemental circumstances situations. A 4-day emergency food allotment is given per visit.  A normal circumstance would limit a client to 15 visits per year. 

Wrapping up with a quote:     “The true greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate acts of its citizens” – Coretta Scott King