Armstrong has kicked off its annual Avenge Hunger Month campaign to help with children with food insecurity in Lawrence County.
The family-owned company has a program called Breaking Bread, which has four goals for its employees: to raise awareness, gather food donations, donate time and donate money.
“A decision was made to, every year, highlight in every community that food insecurity does exist everywhere,” Shane Finster, the community marketing manager for Armstrong, said. “We have found great success with a specific push.”
Every Armstrong office focuses on a particular area and in Lawrence County, Armstrong partners with Backpack Buddies to get food to 300 children in 17 local schools that may not otherwise have enough to eat on the weekends.
Finster said September was chosen for a specific reason – it is national Hunger Action Month and history has proven the need for food to be greater during the last part of the year. Armstrong puts collection bins in area businesses to accept easy to cook or ready to eat items that are put into backpacks for kids when they may not have access to food like they do at school.
Finster said they have been very thankful for their community partners during the food drives.
“Locally, we have collected 38,000 individual items to feed kids in the prior six years,” he said. “Consider it this way, that is 38,000 fruit cups or packs of ramen or oatmeal. That is 38,000 opportunities for kids to eat.”
They are looking for non-perishable food items that are easy for kids to make on their own or don’t require cooking like applesauce, crackers, granola bars, fruit snacks, cereal, oatmeal packets, fruit cups, ramen noodles, pudding cups, macaroni and cheese, easy-to-open cans of soup and juice boxes.
If you are interested in making a monetary contribution, simply visit the local Armstrong location in South Point at 9651 County Road 1.
Non-perishable food donations are accepted at the Armstrong office, as well as through collection bins placed at the following locations: Campbell Chapel Church, City National Bank (Proctorville & Ironton branches), Coal Grove Village Pantry, Conley Insurance, Dickess Insurance, FoodFair (South Point & Ironton stores), Peoples Bank (Proctorville & Ironton branches), River Cities Wireless and WesBanco (Proctorville, South Point, & Ironton branches).
“A lot of them have supported it every single year,” Finster said. “We are so grateful to all of them.
Avenge Hunger Month runs until Oct. 6.