Denton Mayor Mark Burroughs has designated Thursday as Denton’s first “Day of Concern for the Hungry” to collect food to distribute to area food pantries.
The declaration will take place at a news conference beginning at 3 p.m. Thursday at Vision Ministries, 626 Wainwright St.
North Texas Food Bank president and CEO Jan Pruitt will join Burroughs in announcing the beginning of a partnership between the food bank, Serve Denton and the Denton community.
“The idea behind the day was really to help elevate the awareness in the community. There are folks, primarily children, but folks across the board who don’t get three decent meals a day. How can we alleviate that?” said Pat Smith, secretary for Serve Denton. “It’s not so much more money or more resources, although we’re obviously collecting food, but highlighting the need to improve how we distribute food.”
Smith said the partnership with the food bank would create a hub in Denton using existing buildings owned by Denton Bible Church and Vision Ministries. That hub will be a place for local participants in programs like Sack and Snack. In that program, children who qualify are given snack packs of food for the weekend. The hub will allow nonprofit staff and volunteers to avoid driving to Dallas or Fort Worth to pick up food supplies. The food bank staff will be bringing the food to Denton.
“We view this as an opportunity to use the resources our community already has and better organize them, improve quality of life for residents in Denton and reduce the cost for nonprofits and the school district who are participating in the program.”
Volunteers will be on hand to collect food donations from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday at various locations in Denton. The items most needed are peanut butter, canned meats, dry beans, rice, boxed meals, canned vegetables and canned soup. All food collected will go directly to Denton-area nonprofit organizations serving those who need food the most.
These organizations include Our Daily Bread, Vision Ministries, the Denton Community Food Center and the Salvation Army. All are working in partnership with United Way of Denton County and Serve Denton to address hunger.
For more information on where people can volunteer to help the hungry or donate food, contact Vision Ministries at 940-387-8230 or servedenton@gmail.com.
BJ LEWIS can be reached at 940-566-6881. His e-mail address is blewis@dentonrc.com .
HOW TO HELP
As part of the Day of Concern for the Hungry, food donations will be collected from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday at the following locations:
• Denton Civic Center, 321 E. McKinney St.
• Brookshire Grocery Co., Interstate 35E and Teasley Lane
• Bill Utter Ford, 4901 S. Interstate 35E
• Meridian Bank, 1013 W. University Drive