DeLand, FL – It’s another record-setting food haul from government employees throughout Volusia County in their quest to feed those in need during the holidays.
During Thursday’s Volusia County Council meeting at the Historic Courthouse in DeLand, county officials announced that 120,793 pounds of food were collected during the 2015 edition of the “Feed The Need” public employee food drive.
2014’s mark of over 110,000 pounds was the previous best. 2013 came in at over 71,000 pounds.
The totals for the annual food drive includes cash donations that were converted into pounds of food as well as actual food, all of which was donated to the local chapter of the Second Harvest Food Bank.
The food drive – now in its 5th year – gets most of its donations from county government employees as well as employees in each of the county’s municipalities.
Users of Volusia’s public library system also chipped in over 11,000 pounds of food this year through the annual “Food For Fines” program. It eliminates overdue library fines in exchange for donations of cash or food to the “Feed The Need” drive.
Among the cities, Holly Hill was again the top collector, hauling in 22,102 pounds of food. That includes $4,150 in cash converted to food.
In terms of actual food, the cafeteria workers for Volusia County Schools led the way with 24,644 pounds collected.
Second Harvest officials say all the food collected will help them feed up to 3,400 needy local families for a week this holiday season.
Since the drive’s inception in 2011, Feed The Need has collected over 400,000 pounds of food to feed Volusia’s hungry.
Copyright 2015 Southern Stone Communications.