While final numbers are still being calculated, Wednesday’s 16th annual Commerce Bank one for one food drive with Zimmer Communications has raised more than $65,000. That word from Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri president Lindsay Lopez, who spoke to 939 the Eagle this morning in-studio. Additional donations are still being tabulated.
The food bank serves 32 counties, including Boone, Cole and Callaway counties and virtually all of the counties in the 939 the Eagle listening area. Ms. Lopez says the food bank is now spending three times more on food than pre-pandemic.
Zimmer Communications was live Wednesday from 6 am to 6 pm at Columbia Mall and at the Buchheit on Jefferson City’s Missouri Boulevard. Ms. Lopez says residents also donated five thousand pounds of food.
“We’ve seen just steady traffic and the generosity of this community just like every year continues to amaze me,” Lopez says.
Lopez is thanking you for your generosity, saying one in seven Missourians are experiencing food insecurity.
“So we’re serving on average 15,000 more people each month than we were compared with 2021. And so you can see that, you know, lots and lots of need out there. Our expenses are three times what they once were. Food prices and gas, other transportation costs,” she says.
Lopez says Boone County continues to see increasing hunger needs. She says more than 3,700 Boone County families who didn’t receive assistance in 2021 needed help this year.
