Good News: The ‘Together We Can’ food drive begins next week

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - Next week, an important holiday event will take place and all of our viewers are invited to participate in the annual Together We Can Food and Fund Drive.

The holidays are known for food and festivity, but not everyone will be well fed.

“Current statistics that we look at, food insecurity estimates and rates every year, one in six folks in the Texas Panhandle struggle to put food on the table at any given point during the day and one out of five of those are children,” said Zack Wilson, executive director at High Plains food Bank.

The stress and anxiety of just trying to keep your family fed everyday is a struggle that should not be there.

To help the fight against hunger in our area, Newschannel10 will team up with the High Plains Food Bank and Market Street United for the annual Together We Can food drive next week.

“Once again an opportunity for everyone to help and support us. We’ve experienced a huge dip in food donations this year,” Wilson said.

Every donation counts and makes a difference for families.

“When someone doesn’t have energy or food, they can’t do anything else. That breaks my heart. This is a noble cause and I couldn’t think of a better organization to support,” said Bren McClure, station manager at Newschannel 10.

All next week, the parking lot at Market Street off of Georgia Street in Amarillo will come to life as individuals, businesses, and school groups all come together to donate and support the High Plains Food Bank and all the people that benefit from that organization.

“You can drop off food with us at site there at Market Street from anywhere from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. next week. You can also donate monetarily which is a real easy way to do and it actually helps us bring a lot more food in,” Wilson said.

And, of course, you can bring peanut butter for our annual challenge. Will you choose Team Crunchy or Team Creamy?

“Peanut butter is a huge ticket item here at the food bank. It moves very quickly when we have it mainly because it’s a good source of protein,” Wilson said.

Stories of folks in need should motivate everyone to participate.

“A woman pulled up and said that her husband recently passed away and she was struggling and wondering how things are going to work and all of a sudden she was made the guardian of her grandkids and she’s raising kids again and she has three additional mouths to feed at the table and she said ‘if it wasn’t for coming here today I wouldn’t have had food so thank you for helping put food on the table,’” Wilson said. “To hear the stories, to hear families and children who are impacted it gets to you and shows what we’re trying to do here everyday.”

Donating some food or money might seem like a small gesture, but together we can bring some good news to a lot of people this holiday season.

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