Hollister
– The San Benito Harvest Food Drive is once again setting its
sights high for its holiday drive to raise money and collect food
to help the Community Pantry feed those in need.
Hollister – The San Benito Harvest Food Drive is once again setting its sights high for its holiday drive to raise money and collect food to help the Community Pantry feed those in need.
Collection barrels are distributed to participating businesses the first and second weeks of November. Depending on the business’s level of participation, the drive can last any amount of time until mid-December, said Mary Anne Hughes, executive director of Community Pantry. The 2006 Harvest Food Drive hopes to collect 75,000 pounds of non-perishable food items, said Tracie Cone, San Benito Harvest Food Drive co-chairperson. The Community Pantry’s partnership with Second Harvest in Watsonville helps them stretch both dollars and food pounds.
“From now until early December we’ve got a good hard six weeks to get the word out,” Cone said.
The 2005 San Benito Harvest Food Drive collected 70,000 pounds of food, almost twice the amount collected in 2004, Hughes said. Nob Hill Foods collected the most food overall, bringing in 9,900 pounds.
“We have increased quite a bit over the past couple of years,” Hughes said.
Eric Dietz, the general manager of Ridgemark Golf Course, plans to donate a round of golf for two to the business that generates the most per-capita donations every week.
“We have a very generous community when they understand what the issues are,” Hughes said.
The area schools’ drives are already over, Hughes said. The schools have collected an estimated 21,000 pounds of food as of the end of October with more to come, Hughes said. San Benito High School collected 5,916 pounds of food in the 2005 Harvest Food Drive.
“The high school always has great participation,” Cone said.
The Community Pantry’s partnership with Second Harvest has helped its collecting power tremendously, Hughes said. For every dollar the Harvest Food Drive collects, Second Harvest can use its resources to stretch it to three dollars, Cone said. Every pound of food the drive collects translates to nine pounds from Second Harvest, Cone said. The approximately 900,000 pounds of food the Community Pantry processes per year only reaches five percent of those below poverty in the county, well below the 25 percent total.
“The need grows,” Cone said. “It’s not going to get any smaller.”
Cone said the recent rise in need has been due to the county’s poor economy. The Community Pantry qualifies anyone below 175 percent of the federal poverty rate.
“The cost of living here is outrageously high,” Hughes said.
Cone is in her second year as a co-chairperson of the drive. Cone’s support of the Community Pantry dates back to her days as publisher of the Pinnacle, she said.
“This is the most important thing I do all year,” Cone said.
Michael Van Cassell covers public safety for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 335, or [email protected].
