Canned-Food Drive Expanded This Year

A canned-food drive aimed at helping the county’s hungry will be held Oct. 15 to 19 to coincide with “National Hunger Week.”

Organizers say one goal of the food drive is to increase awareness of a problem that affects thousands of county residents each month.

“It’s very difficult to alleviate hunger before you make people aware that the problem exists,” said Dina Weaver, a resource specialist at the nonprofit Food Distribution Center in Orange.

“Orange County is not like Ethiopia; we don’t have children with extended bellies. In a county as wealthy as this, it’s hard to realize that there are 380,000 people who will experience hunger at some time during each month,” Weaver said.

The food drive was held on a smaller scale last year, with mostly county agencies participating, said Bill Secor, event co-chairman.

“The drive has been expanded substantially,” Secor said. “This food will be going to working families where the last thing that’s paid for is food, of which there’s usually not enough.”

Last year, 12,249 pounds of food were collected and distributed to more than 200 county social service agencies. It is hoped that this year’s drive will bring in more than 20,000 pounds of food.

Organizers said that recently purchased canned food is encouraged.

“We’ve gotten some pretty strange things donated in the past,” Weaver said. “We’ve actually had cans from the 1940s, Campbell’s collector cans. You would be amazed.”

The food will be taken to the Food Distribution Center, where it will be examined and distributed to various agencies. Weaver said there is always a shortage of volunteers to help with this process.

“We need volunteers all the time. Getting the food is one thing; getting it out is another, because all of this food needs to be examined,” Weaver said.

Collection barrels will be placed at more than 80 locations in participating cities, which include: Costa Mesa, Cypress, Dana Point, Fountain Valley, Fullerton, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Laguna Beach, Los Alamitos and Santa Ana. Barrels will also be placed inside most county buildings, as well as at John Wayne Airport.

For specific barrel locations, call the Food Distribution Center at (714) 771-1343.