BRATTLEBORO — Project Feed the Thousands kicks off its 19th annual food drive on Friday, Nov. 15 at Price Chopper on Canal Street with a live broadcast hosted by longtime media supporter WTSA 96.7 FM.
The community's goals this year: raise $100,000 in cash and collect enough provisions for 200,000 meals.
The project team will collect non-perishable food, personal care items, and cash donations on behalf of the thousands who face hunger daily throughout southeastern Vermont and southwestern New Hampshire.
According to project co-chair Kelli Corbeil, although Project Feed the Thousands is the region's largest community food drive, and even with a growing list of corporate donors, many area schools participating, and individual donations coming in large and small, achieving the goal this year will be a challenge.
Lucie Fortier, executive director of The Brattleboro Drop-In Center, said in a press statement that Project Feed the Thousands “is imperative to our community food shelves. All of the food shelves in our region are struggling and when the cold season comes the need is enormous. We could not possibly feed all the individuals we see if it wasn't for Project Feed the Thousands.”
The project was started in 1994 by Larry Smith, then of WTSA radio, and George Haynes, former president of Brattleboro Savings & Loan. They said at the time that it was imperative to help those less fortunate in the community, and so they enlisted their neighbors and friends to start a food drive to alleviate hunger in Brattleboro and surrounding towns.
At that time, the goal was to feed an estimated 1,000 people in need of food in the area. That meant filling a single tractor trailer with food.
Since then, Project Feed has grown to cover Windham County and southwestern New Hampshire, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase and distribute food and personal care items to those in need, and filled hundreds of truckloads of food to be distributed to area food shelves.
To donate money, visit www.FeedTheThousands.org or send a check to Project Feed the Thousands, c/o River Valley Credit Union, P.O. Box 8366, 820 Putney Rd., Brattleboro, VT 05304.
Non-perishable food and personal care items may be donated at the Brattleboro Food Co-op, Brattleboro Savings & Loan; Hannaford and Price Chopper locations in Brattleboro; River Bend Farm Market in Townshend; Shaw's in Walpole, N.H. and Wilmington; all River Valley Credit Union locations; Walmart in Hinsdale, N.H.; St. Michael's Church on Walnut Street in Brattleboro; and many other local points.