The Wood County Park District is helping address food insecurity by holding its annual Thanksgiving Food Drive.
Donations will be accepted through Sunday to benefit the Brown Bag Food Project.
The Thanksgiving Food Drive was started in 2020. There are five donations sites across the county, at the Carter Historic Farm, park district headquarters, Otsego Park, the Wood County Museum, and W. W. Knight Nature Preserve.
If three or more items are dropped off at the museum, the donor will receive one free museum admission, said Alyssa Garland, historic farm interpretive assistant, at the park commissioner’s meeting Tuesday.
Non-perishable, shelf-stable food will be accepted as well as feminine hygiene supplies.
Soap, shampoo, toothbrushes and toothpaste, baby items, pet food and pet supplies will also be accepted, she said.
“There are a lot of adults, especially seniors, who sometimes have to decide ‘do I pay for my medication and food, or do I buy food for my pet,’” Garland said.
The park district for years has donated produce grown at Carter Historic Farm to the Brown Bag Food Project.
In 2019, there was so much produce that it was given away to coworkers, Garland said.
“But we were still ending up with waste,” she said. “As a Great Depression-era farm, that’s not within our mission. They did not waste anything back then.”
When COVID hit, usual options to distribute the produce were lost. The solution was to partner with the Brown Bag Food Project, she said.
Almost 15% of Wood County residents struggle with food insecurity, Garland said, including seniors, people with disabilities, college students, single parents and people who have been laid off.
“That really hits the spirit of the Great Depression because farmers, when they could not sell their crops or produce, they would offer it to neighbors and people in need.
“We thought this was the perfect partnership,” Garland said.
The first year of the partnership, in 2020, the district donated 1,300 pounds of food to the Brown Bag Food Project.
In 2021, the district started using programs again, which use about 500 pounds of food. Donations in that year dropped to 800 pounds and to 576 pounds in 2022, Garland said.
Produce donated this year was 2,363 pounds.
