September is Hunger Action Month. Nearly 17% of our family, friends, co-workers and neighbors here in northern Indiana do not know where they will find their next meal. One in four children in this area go to bed hungry each night. The community organizations in the area that support those who are food insecure have been stretched even farther than ever before and the need is still great.
The Fighting Irish Fighting Hunger food drive looks to ease that need. We here at Notre Dame are uniquely blessed and embrace the chance to live the University’s Catholic mission by helping to feed the hungry in our community. Funds collected during the drive will go to local area food pantries to help stock their shelves and to the local food bank to send backpacks of food home with hungry kids over the weekend.
This year’s drive will be held September 5, 2015 through September 25, 2015. Collection boxes will be placed in some buildings around campus but the main focus of the drive is monetary. Every dollar we donate, the food bank can turn into seven or eight meals. As in the past, we are splitting the donations between the United Way coalition of food pantries People Gotta Eat and the Food Bank of Northern Indiana.
For more information about the drive, go to FightingHunger.nd.edu. There you will find:
· A link to the online donation sites for People Gotta Eat and the Food Bank of Northern Indiana
· A list of department and building representatives if you wish to donate by check
· A list of the barrel sites on campus if you wish to donate food items