Blair County Food Drive to benefit eight local organizations

BLAIR COUNTY, Pa. (WTAJ) — An upcoming spring food drive in Blair County will be collecting for eight different local organizations.

Since the pandemic, food insecurity has been a growing concern for everyone around the country, including right here in Pennsylvania. Starting on Monday, March 25 through Saturday, March 30 the food drive is looking to combat that insecurity.

Food can be dropped off from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Sam’s Club parking lot in Altoona (2500 Plank Road).

Here’s the organizations that will benefit from this year’s drive:

“It’s awesome that we’re able to help the community and give a hand up to some that really need it,” Cortney Gensimore, Roaring Spring Library Assistant Director said.

Organizations like the Roaring Spring Library Food Pantry serve up to 160 people every week and notice the issue of food insecurity is growing.

“I’ve noticed actually an increase in need. We’ve been seeing a lot of new faces,” Gensimore said.

For those new faces, it means food drives like these give them a spot for their next warm meal. Despite the need growing, the organizations believe that the community has always supplied for those in need.

“The community has been phenomenal for 33 years,” Sister Paula DelGrosso, Director of the St. Vincent De Paul Soup Kitchen said.

Each of the benefitting organizations feeds hundreds of people within the community. As for what the groups, like St. Vincent De Paul Soup Kitchen, are looking for, they aren’t too picky.

“We take whatever they want to give, whatever they’re able to give, you know, along the line of food or any kind of donations, anything we use or whatever, as long as it’s good,” DelGrosso said.