Thiel College food drive looks to break record and bring total to 10 tons of food collected

Posted August 19, 2022 Print

GREENVILLE, Pa.-- On Sunday, August 21, first-year students at Thiel College will be holding the fourth annual community food drive in the morning to benefit Greenville’s Good Shepherd and Salvation Army food pantries.

As a service-learning project, the new students will spend their first weekend in Greenville placing bags on porches to collect food for those in need with the goal of collecting more than 6,000 pounds of non-perishable food. On Tuesday morning, August 23, the same students will go back to pick up the bags of food from community members who wish to participate. Combined, Thiel College students have collected nearly 14,000 pounds of food for the community since the first collection in 2018. If they top their goal, students will have collected 20,000 pounds of food.

Food banks have reported an average increase in demand of 65% according to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and nearly 1 in 5 children in Mercer County experience food insecurity, according to FeedingAmerica.org. Rural communities make up 63% of counties in the United States and 91% of counties with the highest rates of overall food insecurity, according to data from FeedingAmerica.org.

The Good Shepherd and Salvation Army food pantries are looking for nonperishable food items such as canned foods and dry goods.