We are celebrating an amazing 2020 Food For The Hungry Drive.
Our current total is $332,084.84 and 15.3 truckloads of food!
WNZR’s Alyssa Sidle talked with some of our volunteers and staff after wrapping up a historic day.

Click HERE to hear the thankful conversation.

Community members came together again this year to support food assistance projects and provide emergency client services through Interchurch Social Services, The Salvation Army and other food assistance organizations of Knox County.

Volunteers staffed 13 different collection points around the county on Friday 12/11 to collect food and money, while local media combined to produce an eight-hour live broadcast on radio and the internet.
Thanks to KAT (Knox Area Transit), Susie Simpson and Martin McAvoy and their team from Mobility Management for helping at the county-wide collection points.
A special thanks to Megan Evans for creating and overseeing our COVID-19 Plan and serving as our Official Compliance Officer. Thanks to Megan and her team at the Knox Memorial for their amazing support!

Food For The Hungry also announced the awarding of 20 grants, totaling $27,500 to county projects involving food assistance.

Grants of $2,000 went to:
ACTS Food Pantry
Covenant Church Food Pantry
Central Christian Church Food Pantry
The Church on the Rise Food Pantry
Say a Prayer Ministries/In Joy Food Pantry
The Father’s Table, Food Pantry and Hot Meal

$1,500 grants were awarded to:
Byron Saunders Foundation, Knox County Chapter
First Congregational Church of Christ Hot Meals Program
Fredericktown United Methodist Church, Peace Meals Program
Gay Street United Methodist Church Hot Meals Program
Knox Learning Center, Hungry For Knowledge Project
Lifepoint Church, Backpacks of Hope
Sunday Hot Meal Program

$1,000 grants went to:
New Directions, Hunger Needs After Hours Project
The Freedom Center, Nutrition in Recovery Program
The Winter Sanctuary

We also awarded $500 grants to:
16:15 sk8 (Skate) Ministry
The Main Place
TouchPointe Marriage & Family Resources.
Trinity Worship Center, Blizzard Bags Program

One event continues through December 31st with the Festival of Trees at the Floral Valley Community Center in Apple Valley.

You can stay updated at foodforthehungrycares.org. 

The video archive of Saturday’s broadcast is also available at MVNU.tv in the on-demand tab.

Here are some other exciting totals!

– The Knox County Elementary school collection was hosted by Psi Iota Xi Sorority. The students collected $14,038.09 and 8,215 food items!  (That is 6 ½ truckloads of food)!

– Knox County High Schools collected for Food for the Hungry this year. Volunteer Shawn Dugan coordinated this collection.

• 2020 HIGH SCHOOL TOTAL – The students collected a TOTAL of $7,996.74 and 2,100 Items. That equals 1.68 trucks!

Centerburg High School:
Collection was completed 11/16 -11/20  
This year’s High School food drive coincided with the Elementary School. Centerburg secretaries, Kristi Adams and Christine Clark organized a competition between the High School and the Middle School that resulted in a win for the Middle School. The Middle School will get to give their principle a pie in the face.
2020 Final totals: 337 Food Items and $243.60

Danville High School:
Collection ran from 11/13 – 12/1  
Danville secretary, Jeanell Branstool helped to coordinate their collections. Danville grades 7-12 had a competition between floors of their building. The second floor 9-12 homerooms won the collection competition. These students will be awarded with a pizza party and the added bonus of having the highly sought after popcorn that normally only the staff at Danville have.
2020 TOTAL – 78 food items and $611.00

Fredericktown High School:
Collection dates were 12/2 – 12/9
Fredericktown staff member, Maggie Smith, and National Honor Society Student, Macy Thorne coordinated their collections.
2020 TOTAL – $2,076.52 and 274 food items. 

The Knox County Career Center:
Collection dates were 12/1 – 12/9
KCCC Staff Member, Corey Cline, along with the Student Council coordinated their collections.
The KCCC gives out three pizza parties:  
1.  Lab that brings in the most items overall   – Auto Tech Lab is the winner!
2. Lab that brings in the most food items (no cash) – Landscape Lab is the winner!
3. Lab that averages the most per person – Collision Repair is the winner!
2020 TOTAL – $3,800.67 and 1,084 food items (just under a truckload of food)

Mount Vernon High School:
Collection Dates were 11/30 – 12/4 
Mount Vernon Staff Member, Justin Sanford, and National Honor Society Student, Hunter Schisler coordinated their collections.
2020 TOTAL – $1,264.95 and 327 food items

The top collecting schools in both the Central Knox County and Greater Knox County competitions are recognized and awarded with multi-year traveling plaques  to acknowledge their achievement and contribution to Food For The Hungry.

The 2020 Central Knox County Award goes to the Knox County Career Center!
The 2020 Greater Knox County Award goes to Fredericktown!

– The Knox County Career Center was VERY involved with this year’s Food For The Hungry.
The 2020 Online Silent Auction of themed gift baskets brought in a total of $2,978.
This auction included 9 themed baskets that included gift certificates for goods and services at the Knox County Career Center labs.
The OSU basket filled with goodies for Buckeye fans was donated by the OSU Alumni Club of Knox County.
The Dental Basket was donated by Dr. Chris Martin of Contemporary Dental of Mount Vernon.

The themed basket totals for 2020:  
#1 Ultimate Date Night Basket – $605.00
#2 Car Care Basket – $253.00
#3 Dental Basket – Contemporary Dental – $650.00
#4 Family Fun Pack Basket – $300.00
#5 Fitness Basket – $170.00
#6 Foodies Basket – $500.00
#7 Herbalife Basket – $145.00
#8 Michigan Basket – $105.00
#9 OSU Basket – $250.00

• The Snowflake Gala: benefiting Knox County Food For The Hungry hosted by Kenyon College was a huge success.  In a very different year with multiple challenges, the net proceeds of the gala fundraising exceeded $155,000!  While the President’s annual holiday reception was canceled this year, Kenyon’s faculty and staff still collected at least 13 boxes of canned goods and staples.

Kenyon presented this year’s William A. Stroud Jr. Award for community service to the People of Knox County. 

• Food For The Hungry also did Facebook Pop-Up auctions with massage certificate packets from Top Notch Massage Therapy. These pop-up auctions brought in $ $432!

– The First Food For The Hungry “Battle of the Coffee Shops” was a huge success!  Knox County Coffee Shops collected a total of $3,452.08 and 168 food items!
The Brickhouse Grind from Fredericktown received the trophy for the “Food for the Hungry Coffee Shop of the Year” by collection the most donations – $2,732.18 and 113 food items!

Here are the totals from our other amazing coffee shops:                 
Cotto’s Street -$6.00                          
Half Baked Café’ – $84.00                             
Happy Bean – $94.00 and 6 food items                     
North Main Café – $335.00 and 34               
The Blond Robin – $187.00 and 15 food items                     
Wiggin Street  – $13.90                                  

• The First Food For The Hungry Service Club Competition was also a huge success!  Thanks to Carol Grubaugh, Executive Director of the Knox County Chamber of Commerce for coordinating this collection. Our Knox County Service Clubs collected a total of $6,167 in 9 DAYS!
  Congratulations to the Soroptimist Club of Mount Vernon and Knox County for being the TOP collection club. They collected: $2,600
  Thanks to our other Service Clubs for helping Food For The Hungry.
  Rotary Club of Mount Vernon – $2,452
  Kiwanis Club of Mount Vernon – $575
  Psi Iota Xi Sorority – $340
  Lions Club of Mount Vernon- $200 

– Mount Vernon Nazarene University hosted Knox Needs – to create hunger awareness on campus and raise funds for both food and client services.
$2,435 was donated by faculty and staff
The Esther Jetter Preschool children collected 69 food items and $257.07
MVNU also gave $1,000 to the Kenyon Gala as a Virtual Table Sponsor.
MVNU’s Total – $3,692.07
This amount will feed 410 families of 4 for 3 days! (Using the Mid Ohio Food Bank) $1.00 = $9.00 of buying power.

Mount Vernon Nazarene University presented the Stephen W. Zelkowitz Memorial Award to: Corby Wise, Josh Worster and Joshua Morrison, who all worked for the Mount Vernon News and helped the drive for many years with publicity, marketing and photography.  

– The 10th Annual Turkey Trot 5K Run/Walk was held on Thanksgiving morning on the campus of Mount Vernon Nazarene University. WeRunMV hosted this annual fundraiser to benefit Food For The Hungry.  Donations totaled $1,536 and 449 food items.

– The Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County Food for fines was another success. 560 pounds of food was collected! That’s .36 truckloads of food!

– The Knox County Park District “Fire and Ice” Event to benefit Food For The Hungry was different this year because of COVID-19. The event was held as two drive-through events. Knox County Park District placed 300 sparkling luminaria through the Wolf Run Regional Park parking lot. At a simultaneous event located across the county, the Millwood Church of Christ in Howard placed 300-snowflake luminaria to entertain and guide visitors through the church drive-through event.
Wolf Run Park total – $1,080 plus a truckload of food
Millwood Church of Christ total – $187

2020 Total for Fire and Ice – $1,267 and 1 truckload of food

Collection Point Totals:

APPLE VALLEY/HOWARD: Red Rover Marathon – $56.00 

CENTERBURG:Hometown Market: $1,535.00 

DANVILLE:Hometown Market – $268.00 

FREDERICKTOWN: BellStores – $431.00

GAMBIER:The Village Market – data will be coming soon 

MOUNT VERNON: 
Aldi – $274.00 

Kroger – $1,514.00 

Lanning’s Foods – $1,329.00 

Baker’s IGA – $629.00 

Rural King – $696.00 

Wal-Mart Supercenter – $567.00 

The Knox Memorial – $28,293.38

THANK YOU for doing YOUR part to fight hunger in our community!

God BLESS you this Christmas!

*You can see pictures and videos at www.foodforthehungrycares.org
Click on the connect button and you’ll see a link to photo gallery and a video gallery.*
 
For more information, log on to FoodForTheHungryCares.org. Food For The Hungry – Working together to care for our neighbors.