This Saturday, October 26, is a nation-wide day of volunteering, known as Make A Difference Day. For the 20th year in a row, here in Lake County, there will be a collection of non-perishable food for our local communities.
The total amount of food collected in the first 19 years is 71,639 pounds! Several years ago, Lake Transit Authority joined the effort and we turned it into the Stuff-A-Bus event. They will once again participate with a bus parked at the Clearlake Grocery Outlet, which will be stuffed with the food collected.
North Coast Opportunities, Community Action and the Lake County Hunger Task Force will be staffing the collection site, along with volunteers from the Kelseyville High School Interact club and the community, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. All of the food collected will stay in Lake County. Our local pantries and Senior centers are greatly in need of donations to fill their shelves. These pantries operate year round, and are invaluable to their local communities. This collection will be split evenly between the Live Oak Senior Center, Highlands Senior Center, Lucerne Alpine Senior Center, Catholic Charities Rural Food Project in Kelseyville, Helping Hand, CCHAP, RU Hunger, Lake Family Resource Center, Kelseyville Presbyterian Church, United Methodist Church in Clearlake Oaks, and Community Baptist Church in Nice.
There are barrels out now at six locations to collect food before the actual event. They are located at the Riviera Foods, Woodland College, Clearlake campus, Konocti Christian Academy, Lake County Office of Education, Meadowbrook Head Start, and Cobb Mt. Elementary.
If you would like to make a donation and are unable to bring it on Saturday, please take it to one of the above locations. Please, no expired or past dated food. It should be noted that over the past five years, Konocti Christian Academy alone has collected 3763 pounds of food!
Additional volunteers are always welcome to participate. Please call Tammy Alakszay at 263-4688 ext 404 or Lorrie Gray at 277-9227 for more information. We are counting on the generosity of our local people to once again help each other.
