Nearly one in four residents of the City of St. Louis lives in poverty and faces hunger, and food pantries across the region have experienced a 30 percent increase in requests over the last year, according to Stephanie Kurtzman, director of the university’s Community Service Office and associate director of the Gephardt Institute for Public Service.
“As summer approaches and school lets out, approximately 135,000 children in the St. Louis region will lose their access to free and reduced (price) breakfast and lunch,” Kurtzman said. “Once again, the WUSTL community will have the opportunity to help these children so they won’t go hungry this summer.”
For the third year, Washington University in St. Louis is partnering with Operation Food Search to coordinate the PB&Joy University-Wide Food Drive, which runs April 4-16. There are two easy ways for students, staff and faculty to participate:
1. Donate food at a drop-off location near you. Kid-friendly foods are preferred and all food is welcome. A list of preferred food — and drop-off locations — is available at http://fooddrive.wustl.edu. Please, no glass items. Drop-off locations are available on the Danforth Campus, Medical Campus, North Campus, and West Campus. Peanut butter and canned chicken, tuna and fruit can be purchased at Paws & Go Market (South 40) and Millbrook Market (North Side).
2. Make an online donation to Operation Food Search. Visit http://fooddrive.wustl.edu to make a secure, tax-deductible donation to Operation Food Search. Payment is by credit card, and every $4 donation allows Operation Food Search to provide one person with enough food for a day.
Last year, the PB&Joy food drive at WUSTL yielded 4,686 pounds of food and $4,664 in monetary donations. The cumulative effort was enough to feed 2,338 people for a day, according to Operation Food Search estimates.
Please visit http://fooddrive.wustl.edu to learn more about hunger in St. Louis and opportunities to get involved beyond PB&Joy.
About Operation Food Search
Established in 1981 to address the growing problem of hunger, Operation Food Search has become the largest distributor of free food in the St. Louis bi-state region helping to feed the area’s poor and hungry.
Each month, Operation Food Search distributes more than 2 million pounds of food and household items to more than 230 community agencies that in turn feed more than 150,000 people. Nearly half of the recipients are children.