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We are asking each Lions Club to team up
with a youth group and coordinate a Food Drive and make it part of your
annual program. The collected food
will go to your local or regional Food Bank and is distributed to the hunger
relief agencies that service your community.
Any collected cash (donations, bake sale profits, etc) should be sent
to the Food Bank OR to the
United Nations World Food Program.
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The Food Bank Association of New York helped
feed over 2.1 million people in 2008 by the distribution of over 155 million
pounds of food through 5,000 food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and
other emergency feeding programs. The
state food bank network covers each and every county in New
York State through
locations in Buffalo,
Rochester, Elmira,
Syracuse, Albany,
Cornwall-on-Hudson, Millwood, New York
City and Hauppauge.
The Food Bank Association of New York State
is a non-profit organization representing the eight regional food banks
located across the state. The Association is located at 235 Lark Street, Albany,
NY 12210
(518) 433-4505 www.foodbankassocnys.org
and is administered by a full-time Executive Director, John T. Evers. The board
of directors includes the CEOs of the states eight America's Second Harvest-affiliated
food banks.
The
daily mission of food banking is simple: to obtain food and then, in turn,
deliver it to emergency food programs (food pantries, soup kitchens,
shelters). The Food Bank Association works to end hunger by assisting the
food bank network in obtaining more food and funds, fostering public
awareness of the food banks' mission, and creating partnerships to help alleviate
hunger in New York.
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Food
banks get their food through donations, salvaged product, and purchases.
Donations come from large and small donors alike - from individuals, small
community food drives, New York
farmers, and private companies. Often times food banks are given salvage food
items that are only superficially damaged, meaning that the food is perfectly
edible but the packages or cans may have some cosmetic damage. Food banks
also receive surplus commodities from the federal government (USDA) and aid
from New York State's Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program
(HPNAP) that assist in the direct purchase of nutritious food, dairy
products, and fresh fruits and vegetables. Our main support comes from
thoughtful people who donate time, food, and money.
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