A summer food drive planned for the first Saturday of August hopes to fill a growing need throughout the St. Louis region.
Operation Food Search is holding its ninth annual Shop Out Hunger Day on Saturday, Aug. 3, outside more than 140 area grocery stores. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. that day, volunteers will be stationed outside stores such as Dierbergs, Schnucks and Straub’s, collecting non-perishable food items and donations that will stay in each store’s community.
The food drive will help support Operation Food Search’s efforts to restock the shelves of both its distribution center located at 1644 Lotsie Blvd. and its 220 community partner agencies.
OFS executive director Kristen Wild says the nonprofit teams up with a host of community partners for the drive, including Franklin County Hunger Task Force, Jefferson County Hunger Task Force, St. Charles Community Council, and area food pantries across 12 counties.
“We need our community’s help during the summer, which is typically a time when food donations are at their lowest,” Wild said. “This annual food drive is one of our most successful campaigns, thanks to the dedication of our volunteers and partnerships with our local grocery stores.”
Volunteers are also needed to greet customers and collect donations at various grocery store locations in Missouri (Jefferson, Franklin, St. Charles, Warren, Lincoln, St. Francois and St. Louis counties, and St. Louis City) and Illinois (St. Clair, Marion, Jackson and Madison counties).
Operation Food Search, founded in 1981, is a hunger relief organization that provides food and nutrition education. The organization helps feed more than 200,000 individuals on a monthly basis – one-third of whom are children – through a network of 220 community partner agencies in 31 Missouri and Illinois counties.
For more information on volunteering or donating food, call (314) 726-5355 or visit operationfoodsearch.org.
