CINCINNATI — Volunteers will distribute food to about 1,400 families in Roselawn Wednesday afternoon.
The food will be distributed from noon to 4:30 p.m. at the Cincinnati Reds Youth Academy at 2026 E Seymour Ave. The donations are available to everyone.
About 30,000 ready-to-cook, crockpot-style meals will be distributed. Each family will also receive a box of fresh produce. Anyone interested in receiving a food donation will drive up, pop the trunk and volunteers will load food into the car.
There will be a walk-up station where volunteers will hand out food until 4:30 p.m. or until they run out.
Trisha Rayner, vice president of external affairs at Freestore Foodbank, said the event is especially important this year; the food pantry has seen a dramatic spike in the amount of people they serve.
"We've seen about a 65% increase in need, and so the families that have been coming through have been just so gracious and appreciative of the food that we're able to provide,” Rayner said. “Almost 75% of the families we've seen have never had to use our services before."
Food donations to Freestore Foodbank are down about 40%, so they’ve had to purchase a lot of the food that goes out to area pantries.
Freestore Foodbank has already started to plan for Thanksgiving and Christmas meals because they expect the need to be about double this year.
