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TMCNet: EDITORIAL: Families in distress

[March 14, 2010]

EDITORIAL: Families in distress

Mar 14, 2010 (The Akron Beacon Journal - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Keep your eyes peeled around town, and you will see signs of families in distress. More people are showing up at food pantries and soup kitchens. Adults stand at street corners, their cardboard signs pleading for work or money to buy food. Many households where workers have gone months without jobs struggle to put food on the table.


The number of people in this region who need food assistance increased nearly 12 percent in the past year, according to the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank, which distributes food and other products for hunger relief programs in Summit and seven other counties. The foodbank distributions -- 18.7 million pounds of food last year -- feed more than 40,000 a week. The demand continues to rise.

No individual or organization, however generous, has the resources to meet such a challenge on its own. That reality makes the nonprofit foodbank and the 400-plus organizations it serves the ideal network to combat growing hunger efficiently and quickly right here in our communities.

The Akron-Canton foodbank needs both food donations and the funds to acquire, store and distribute goods. It raises the resources locally through the Harvest for Hunger campaign this month. The goal this year is $700,000. Every $1 raised translates into three meals for this area's hungry, a most efficient return on donations. For more information on how to donate, visit the foodbank's Web site at www.akroncantonfoodbank.org or call 330-535-6900.

To see more of the Akron Beacon Journal, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.ohio.com. Copyright (c) 2010, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

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