The Upcounty Hub’s October Food Drive is open every day this week from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.  I caught Marco Oven, Senior Program Coordinator at the Hub, Monday morning to give us some context for this drive.  Here’s what he said:

GGC:    Who will get these groceries?

Oven:   These food items will go directly to one of the 1,100 families affected by the pandemic in the Upcounty Montgomery County area which we serve each week.

GGC:    How much difference will it make in their monthly food budget?

Oven:   A huge difference.  The box of food we supply to each family is intended to sustain a typical family of four for 4 – 5 days.

GGC:    Why these particular items?

Oven:   These are generally the most needed items and are definitely in high demand right now.

GGC:    What happens when you run out of a particular food item?

Oven:   If we run out of one kind of food, we try to substitute a similar item.  For example, if we run out of macaroni & cheese, we might substitute it with mashed potatoes.  If there is no similar item, occasionally we have to go buy it from the local Giant or Safeway, dipping into our own limited funds.

GGC:    How often will you have food drives like this one?

Oven:   Our next drive will occur sometime before Christmas which will be a toy drive.  We try to have a drive a couple times a year.

GGC:    What else can volunteers do at the hub?

Oven:   There are many opportunities: we need volunteers to deliver food to our shut-in recipients, we need help packing boxes in our warehouse, packing bags of supplemental produce, and helping to organize shelves.

Please consider contributing some groceries to the October Food Drive – it ends this Friday!