Food donations sought for BackPack Buddies

Armstrong’s Avenge Hunger food drive is back for its fourth year and Shane Finster, the community marketing manager for Armstrong, is hoping for a better year than last year.

“Last year was weird because so many of the businesses were closed to customers coming inside because of the pandemic,” he said. And that made it hard for people to donate.

To help with the limited donations, they had a virtual 5K race to raise funds.

This year, the Avenge Hunger collection boxes will be in 19 locations all across Lawrence County with the food going to the BackPack Buddies program.

“BackPack Buddies is a non-profit organization that provides food for school age children who have limited to no access to food over the weekends,” Finster said. “They assemble a food package, it gets discretely put into a child’s backpack and it goes home with them.”

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-to-open cans of soup and juice boxes.

The food collection boxes will be out until Oct. 3 at the following locations: The Ironton Tribune, Armstrong, Campbell Chapel Church, Citizens Deposit Bank in Ironton and Proctorville, City National Bank in Ironton and Chesapeake, Coal Grove FoodFair, Conley Insurance, Dickess Insurance, Ironton FoodFair, Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce, McMeans Pharmacy, River Cities Wireless, Ohio University Southern in Ironton and Proctorville, and Unger’s Shoe Store.

Armstrong also accepts monetary donations at their South Point office.

For the past 11 years, Armstrong’s Breaking Bread has collected food year-round and donated to local food banks.