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URBANA, Ill. (WCIA) — The Eastern Illinois Foodbank is celebrating its 40th anniversary and to mark the occasion, they’ve set big goals for themselves this September.
The Eastern Illinois Foodbank was built to relieve people from hunger through 18 different Eastern Illinois counties. They’re a warehouse that supplies foods to soup kitchens, church pantries, school markets and more.
With thousands of people in Eastern Illinois dealing with food insecurity, the food bank wants to spread awareness to the community. For Hunger Action Month, which starts on Friday, they’ll be doing that by hosting fundraising events throughout the month.
Those events include WCIA’s Spotlight Game of the Week. The foodbank will set up at each game and have the two different schools see who can raise the most money and have those bragging rights.
Sophie Becker, the foodbank’s Communication and Engagement Manager, said that not only is this a good way to raise money, but it’s also helpful to create awareness and share information to rural community.
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“We have initiatives going on all month long for people to get involved in some way,” Becker said. “Whether that is spreading awareness, volunteering, donating, any way that they can get involved and help us to feed our neighbors makes a huge impact.”
They hope the initiatives, such as Operation Orange, can donations, lunch packing and more, will create awareness around the 18 counties the EIF serves. All month long they will have different things for people to initiatives for people to be a part of.
They even have help from the Champaign Asphalt Company. Champaign Asphalt has partnered with the EIF to help them raise $40,000. Every dollar they receive will provide six meals to the community. They will match every donation up to $20,000 until Sept. 30th.
This week’s Spotlight Game is Bismarck-Henning at Westville. People interested in donating to the EIF or volunteering can do so at the game or on the EIF’s website.
