WTVM wraps up annual ‘Share Your Thanks by Giving’ food drive with over 5,400 meals collected
COLUMBUS, Ga. (WTVM) - 115,000 people across the Chattahoochee Valley are either chronically hungry or live in a food dessert.
“When we say it takes a valley to end hunger, we truly mean that.”
The rain did not keep your generous hearts from stopping by WTVM’s one day drop off for our food drive to help stock the shelves of Feeding the Valley Food Bank based in Columbus. The organization serves 17 counties in Georgia and one in east Alabama.
“That’s 600,000 square miles and population of half a million people; 115,000 of them are food insecure or chronically hungry. We provide prepared meals, we provide commodity boxes, and we work with a network of partner agencies, churches and other non-profits to come get food from us and help in their local community and pockets of need they serve,” said Sheppard.
Sheppard says with a 30 percent increase in demand post pandemic, a lot of people are struggling.
“We have more people to feed and we’re thankful the communities comes together and helped us by donating food and financial donations to help people in need,” said Sheppard.
Through Feeding the Valley, $1 donation provides 6 meals.
“That’s a family with 4 children that are struggling to have food on the table every night to have a meal every night. You can make that difference with a simple donation to help that family eat, to have a thanksgiving meal that they wouldn’t have otherwise,” said Sheppard.
Feeding the Valley is celebrating 40 years of nourishing hope and more than 135 million pounds of food donated to those in need.
You as our viewers helped out to that total through News Leader 9′s Share Your Thanks by Giving.
We will keep you updated on numbers once donations are sorted and distributed.
A special thank you to our sponsors Sons Chevrolet in Columbus, Sons Ford in Auburn, and the Columbus River Dragons.
Through this event, WTVM was able to collect 6,535 pounds of food from the stations and drop off location, which is equivalent to 5,446 meals.
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