CCS to host food drive for Hunger Action Month

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OGDEN — As children head back to school, Catholic Community Services officials are looking at the Joyce Hansen Hall Food Bank shelves and worrying about how far their supplies are going to stretch. Holiday donations won’t start coming in for a few months, and it will be even longer until any of the statewide food drives that help stock the shelves. In the meantime, people are hungry, said Randy Chappell, director of CCS’ Basic Needs program.

Because of this need, for the first time ever, CCS is putting on its own food drive for the month of September which is designated as national Hunger Action Month.

“We’re seeing more individuals coming into our pantry; we’re in need of more food,” Chappell said. “If we didn’t do this food drive, the next food drive would be in February 2025, and so we feel like that’s too big of a gap between [the previous food drive in] May to next February.”

Although there are indications that the national economy is improving, CCS has seen a steady increase in the number of clients coming into the food bank, Chappell said. “We are serving about 1,700 to 1,800 households a month; that’s close to 10,000 individuals a month.”

The majority of the food bank’s clients are individuals who work but nevertheless are struggling to make ends meet.

“It helps them save a couple hundred bucks a month where they can put it towards other resources or put it in their savings for an emergency,” Chappell said. ‘It’s that decision: do you pay rent, or do you pay for food? It’s that hard. It’s a hard question of, ‘I’ve got this much money for the month. Do I go homeless, or do I buy food or other things?’ I think if the food bank wasn’t there, there would be a lot more people that would be hungry than what there already is.”

CCS is encouraging businesses, schools, parishes, churches and even neighborhoods to get involved in this month’s food drive. They have set a goal of 50,000 pounds, which is just 2.5 percent of the 2,691,480 pounds of food they distributed to 2,687 households last year. The items of greatest need right now are jam, peanut butter, canned fruit, canned vegetables, canned meat, soup and beans, macaroni and cheese, grains (cereal, pasta, rice) canned spaghetti sauce and Hamburger Helper.

CCS will provide barrels and other resources to groups willing to organize their own food drives. However, it does not have the resources to gather all the collected food, so they’re asking that it be taken to the food bank at 2504 F. Ave, Ogden, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Monetary donations also are helpful, Chappell said. “If someone donates a monetary donation online, or mails in a check – any financial donation – we can work with our partners where we can make that dollar go a lot farther with the partners that we have through grocery stores or other organizations.”

The food drive will run Sept. 1-30. Visit https://ccsutah.org/news/hunger-action-month-food-drive for information; monetary donations can be made at https://ccsutah.org/donate and select selecting the “Hunger Action Month” Campaign.