The Peoria Area Anti-Hunger Coalition announces details for the 2017 Foodshare Canathon. 2017 is the 33rd Year of the Foodshare Canathon. The door-to-door collection is on Sunday, March 19, 2017 from l:00 to 4:00pm.
Canathon bags will be inserted in the Peoria Journal Star on Monday, March 13, 2017. We ask recipients to fill the bags with nonperishable and canned food and place on their doorstep by l:00pm.
Suggested food items include canned meat or tuna, soups, stews, chili, peanut butter, vegetables, fruit, and boxes dinners or macaroni and cheese.
Drop boxes will be in place at all area Kroger Supermarkets, Peoria Fire Stations, Subway, and WBNH and WCIC radio. If no one comes to your door on March 19th, we ask you just drop your bag of food in one of the drop boxes.
All area Kroger supermarkets will have bins in place or the Canathon from March 13th to March 31st. Don’t want to bother selecting food? Kroger has packaged bags of $3.00, $5.00, and $10.00 that customers may purchase at checkout and then place in the bin by the door.
A large number of churches are sponsoring Canathon Sunday on Sunday, March 19th. The church will hand out Canathon bags on March 12th and ask members to bring back to church on March 19th. The collected food will then be given to an area food pantry serving those in need.
For more than 30,000 people each month here in Central Illinois, food security is a problem. That’s how many people come to emergency food pantries and soup kitchens. Data collected by the Peoria Area Anti-Hunger Coalition shows that three out of five children in the Peoria area go to bed hungry at least one day a month. The food pantries are stretched to the limit and the shelves are sparse in many of them.
What are the faces of hunger?
- An elderly person who buys prescription drugs and has no money left for food
- An elderly person with high utility bills and an old and poorly insulated home
- A single mom working a minimum-wage job with no benefits
- A teen mom with a new baby and no infant formula
- A single dad laid-off from work
- A working-poor family whose car broke down and had to be fixed so they could go to work
- A family with a medical crisis whose money went for medical care
- A family with a recent death and extra expenses
- An individual who was in a car accident and is unable to work and has no sick leave
- A single mom who had unexpected school expenses
- A seriously ill person who is unable to work
- A grandparent on a fixed income suddenly raising grandchildren
- And the list goes on and on!
These are the reasons why for 33 years the Peoria Area Anti-Hunger Coalition has sponsored the Foodshare Canathon to serve people in need. We are counting on you to help us help our neighbors in need.
Contact: Marjorie LaFont, 309-243-5446 or 309-696-0223. To volunteer, contact Pepper Bauer at 309-697-5762 or e-mail Pepper at pepperbauer@att.net.