The barrels contained canned goods, tuna, boxes of crackers, boxes of pasta and a cornucopia of other nonperishable food items donated by library patrons.
“There’s just a really strong need right now for food across the community, and the Monroe County Public Library is doing a great job helping us collect these essential food items,” said Jake Bruner, Hoosier Hills director of development and administration.
The Hoosier Hills Food Bank sponsors the food drive in the MCPL. From Oct. 16 to Oct. 25, library patrons can bring in nonperishable food items to erase $1 from their overdue fines.
“This is great because it gives people an opportunity to get rid off some their fines and allow us to collect food for the food drive,” Amber Mestre, senior information assistant, said.
Ian Hoagland, MCPL information assistant, said he’s seen an increase in the amount of participation in the food drive during the last few days.
“What happens is usually within the first couple of days there isn’t a whole lot of donations,” he said.
But as more people heard about the food drive there’s been a vast increase in participation.
While some people bring in food items to reduce their overdue fines, others donate food items as a charitable act, Hoagland said.
“I had one individual today who came in and dropped off a large bag of food just as a donation,” he said.
With the upcoming holiday season, Bruner said the HHFB is in need of a large influx of food.
“We’re getting close to the holidays, so a lot of food pantries are preparing to stock up for Thanksgiving food giveaways and Christmas,” Bruner said.
HHFB collects, stores and distributes across six counties in south-central Indiana and to nearly 100 member agencies.
HHFB distributes to a variety of locations including Middle Way House, Girls Inc., Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard, and the Crestmont Boys and Girls Club, where HHFB provide snacks for the after-school program.
Bruner said he appreciates the MCPL’s helping the food bank collect food during a slow time of the year.
Bruner said he hopes the food bank can collect between 2,000 and 5,000 pounds of food.
“In general, this year food drives have been down,” he said. “So these stalwart food drives are great for us. This could be a big one so we’re really excited about that.”
Bruner said this food drive will help catapult the HHFB into one of its most demanding times of the year.
“It’s really great timing for the library to be able to pull this off,” he said.
