DeLand, FL - Public employees all over the county gather over 64,000 pounds of food for a "friendly competition" food drive.
During the County Council's December 18th meeting, Joanne Magley, Community Information Director and host of WNDB's Volusia Today, announced the totals for the "Feed the Need" food drive, which was described as a friendly competition for public employees.
Participants included many different organizations around Volusia County including Volusia County School Way Cafe, Volusia County Sheriff's Office and cities including Daytona Beach, DeLand, Ormond Beach and New Smyrna, just to name a few.
A separate element of the food drive included "Food For Fines" where library patrons with late fees can get a $1 reduction on overdue fines up to $25 for each boxed or canned nonperishable food item they brought to the library.
Both the county's Purchasing Department and New Smyrna Beach took home the awards for the most food donated for a department and a city within Volusia County.
Departments and cities won based off of how many pounds of food brought in compared to how many employees:
COUNTY DEPARTMENTS/DIVISIONS (In Pounds, winners in bold):
COUNTY DEPARTMENT/DIVISION TOTAL: 28,000~
Purchasing won the award for most donated from employees with the average of food donated from an employee at over 200 pounds each.
CITY TOTALS* (In Pounds, winners in bold):
CITY TOTALS*: 27,000~
New Smyrna was the top collector among cities with the most pounds of food collected and the most food per full-time employee with 45 pounds.
OTHERS (In Pounds):
*Specific totals were not given for some results
All the food and funds collected from the drive would be distributed to local food pantries, soup kitchens, senior centers, churches and other nonprofits.
Bob Thomas with Second Harvest Food Bank spoke at the council during the presentation, offering his thoughts on the drive.
"First of all, when Joanne all these numbers up here we see pounds, pounds, pounds, pounds," Thomas said. "Just remember, that's food. That's good quality food that people are going to have in time for the holidays."
Thomas also said that the 64,000~ pounds of food collected by the county will provide 54,000 meals and feed more than 2,600 families for a week.
The total over the program so far for eight years totals to over 782,000 pounds of food.
