As Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton made landfall over the past few weeks, your Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank has been actively coordinating our disaster response with Feeding America.
Feeding America, along with local food banks, are on the ground before, during and after a disaster hits, ensuring people who are impacted have food and hope during the toughest of times. Feeding America acts as the primary coordinator for its network of 200 food banks across the country to deploy truckloads of products to assist neighbors getting back on their feet.
Over the past several days, your Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank has been in regular contact with Feeding America and other food banks in affected areas to assess their needs and provide support.
As of Oct. 15, we have deployed 2 semi-truck loads of food and essential items to North Carolina, and we are preparing an additional semi-truck load which will be deployed later this week. Loads of product include items requested by Feeding America such as ramen noodles, stuffing, snacks, bottled water and six pallets of shampoo.
Additionally, we have been working with ALDI and Feeding America to support ALDI’s annual disaster-relief food box packing. These food boxes are stored at food banks across the country, including your Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank, so they can be quickly deployed to support people in disaster-stricken areas when needed.
We currently have 800 ALDI disaster-relief food boxes at our Stark County Campus in Canton which will be deployed to Florida later this week. Each box contains a handwritten note of encouragement from an ALDI employee along with shelf-stable food items like apple sauce, peanut butter, canned soup, granola bars, crackers and much more.
How can you help?
Make a donation to help replenish our inventory, which provides food and other essential items to more than 600 food pantries, meal sites, shelters, children and senior programs and other hunger-relief programs across our 8-county service area.
Sign up to volunteer and help families in need right here in Northeast Ohio. We are specifically looking for volunteers to work in our on-site food pantries, assisting neighbors during open hours as well as restocking our shelves during closed hours. Our food pantries are open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 9am to 1pm.