GAINESVILLE .- The Georgia Mountain Food Bank (GMFB) is hosting a Stock the Shelves Campaign.
Each month, GMFB receives approximately 90,000 pounds of food items from retail partners, which accounts for about 51 percent of the overall food donations. This large bulk surplus food is critically important to the operation of the organization, officials say. In fact, without partnerships with companies like Kroger, Publix, Walmart, Food Lion, Sam s Club, Sprouts, Target, Performance Foodservice, Perdue Farms, Tyson and Whole Foods, GMFB s ability to provide five meals for every dollar donated, would be greatly impacted.
"As important as these distribution and manufacturer partnerships are, it takes the entire community working consistently together to continue to enhance our ability to provide food to the food insecure in our area," says Kay Blackstock, executive director at GMFB. "To secure the remaining product needed to meet our feeding partners needs it takes the support of our donors (both corporate and individual), community food drives, and our affiliation with the Atlanta Community Food Bank. "
The focus of the Stock the Shelves Campaign is to provide healthy filler items and the financial support to provide fresh produce to agencies and GMFB's feeding partners. There are two ways to participate: organize and run an official food drive utilizing the most needed items list, or run a fund drive. Because of the buying power and relationships in place to purchase bulk food at a discount, running a fund drive is the most powerful way to help increase the food supplies on the shelves of the Food Bank in a hurry.
"The first Stock the Shelves Campaign was in 2008 for the grand opening of our new home, the Boomershine Family Logistics Center," continues Blackstock. "We had a 22,000 square foot building that needed to be filled with food, and this community came through for us in a huge way. Although we still have surplus food coming into the facility, there are many empty shelves right now. Local food drives and fund drives are a great way for the community to partner together and help us out, especially as we enter the summer months when our children are out of school and our partner agencies are operating at maximum capacity (often adding specialized summer feeding programs) in order to provide additional meals to fill the gaps."
Items on the needs list include:
- Whole grain pasta
- Canned spaghetti sauce
- Peanut butter and jelly (low sugar)
- Canned meat (chicken, tuna, roast beef)
- Canned fruit (no sugar added)
- Cereal (low sugar)
- Oatmeal
- Canned vegetables (low sodium)
- Canned meals (i.e. Chef Boyardee)
" The Stock the Shelves Campaign will wrap up its efforts the last week of April with our legal community's fourth annual Legal Food Frenzy Drive, " Blackstock added. "We are proud to have the second largest number of firms participating in this fund/food drive in the State of Georgia. I see Stock the Shelves as an opportunity to invite all members of the community from all walks of life, organizations and industries to step in and join these great efforts! "
Contact GMFB to find out how you can help run a food drive or a fund drive as part of the Stock the Shelves Campaign. Food donations can be dropped off every Monday Friday, 9 a.m. 4 p.m. throughout the month of April. Call 770-534-4111 or visit their website for more information.
