Last year, Armstrong gathered 7,000 non-perishable items during its food drive.

This year, they are looking to do more.

“This is our second annual Avenge Hunger food drive,” said Shane Finster, the community marketing manager for Armstrong. “2018 was our first one and it was highly successful, we gathered over 7,000 items and we want to do better than that this year.”

To that end, the company put out 23 boxes around Lawrence County for people to donate food until Oct. 4.

The Avenge Hunger food drive runs parallel with Feeding America’s  National Hunger Month, which is held in September every year.

“Armstrong itself, we run a year-round food drive from our office in South Point called Breaking Bread,” Finster said. “But we do a particular emphasis in the month of September to help alleviated hunger and food insecurity in our local area, with a focus on children.”

Specifically, the food from the Avenge Hunger drive goes to Backpack Buddies, which distributes food to school children to eat over the weekend when they don’t have access to school lunches.

“Our hope is to produce even better numbers this year, because at the end of the day, we are feeding lots of children,” Finster said. “We want to make sure, in a very discrete manner, that kids who don’t have food on the weekend are able to eat. Thanks to the generous support of the community, we make sure these kids get fed.”

They are looking for non-perishable food items that are easy for kids to make on their own. The specific items they are looking for include applesauce, crackers, granola bars, fruit snacks, cereal, oatmeal packets, fruit cups, ramen noodles, pudding cups, macaroni and cheese, easy open soups and juice boxes.

The locations of the food drive boxes include: Armstong in South Point, Bartram & Son Supermarket in Ironton, Campbell Chapel Church in Ironton, Chesapeake Veterinary Clinic in Chesapeake, City National Bank in Ironton, Chesapeake and Proctorville, Coal Grove Food Fair, Conley Insurance in South Point, Dickess Insurance in Ironton, Holiday Inn Express and Suites in Ironton, Kentucky Farm Bureau in Ashland, Kentucky, Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce in South Point, Ohio University Southern in Ironton and Proctorville, Proctorville Animal Clinic, River Cities Wireless in Ironton, Signarama River Cities in South Point, South Point Storage, The Elks Lodge 177 in Ironton, The Ironton Tribune, Unger’s Shoe Store in Ironton and Walmart in South Point.