For The Tribune
What do you do with 40,000 pounds of sweet potatoes? The Society of St. Andrew, a hunger relief organization with offices around the country, including one in Alabama, works with local Cullman County sweet potato growers who are offering a hefty amount of nutritious food as a donation to the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama and to many agencies feeding the hungry in the Birmingham and central Alabama area.
On Saturday at 8:30 a.m., local volunteers will come together to bag 40,000 pounds of local sweet potatoes. This single load will bring 120,000 servings of food for people in need in 12 counties across central Alabama.
Clearbranch United Methodist Church and First Baptist Church of Trussville are hosting this event. It will be held in the parking lot of Clearbranch at 8051 Glenn Road in Trussville with volunteers of all ages arriving at 8:30 a.m. to begin bagging with agencies scheduled to pick up from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
“This outpouring of community involvement from local volunteers and the Society of St. Andrew is the key to ensuring local, fresh produce make into the hands of friends and neighbors across Central Alabama who need it most,” said Mary Michael Kelly, executive director of the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama.
The Food Bank distributed 7.7 million pounds of food throughout 12 counties in central Alabama through partnerships with more than 200 feeding programs last year. The food bank started the Produce in Pantries Program in 2011 with the goal of distributing fresh produce directly into communities in order to combat obesity and encourage healthy eating.
Society of St. Andrew is a faith-based nonprofit organization committed to ending food waste in the U.S. and eliminating hunger in communities. This is accomplished through a common-sense approach that gleans and salvages fresh produce at the farm level, making it available to those who need it most. In 2012, records were set nationally, when Society of St. Andrew rescued 33.3 million pounds of food with help from more than 40,000 volunteers
. The society provided almost 100 million servings of nutritious food to hungry people across the U.S.
For more information about the Society of St. Andrew, visit www.endhunger.org.