Salina’s largest annual effort to gather food for the hungry is set to begin. The 2023 Project Salina food drive will kick off on Thursday.
A luncheon event at 11:00 at the Sunrise Presbyterian Church, 825 E. Beloit in Salina, will officially kick-off Project Salina.
Project Salina started in 1990. Founding members Jack Parr and Jane Kramer saw that the agencies in Salina that help provide meals were running into empty shelves by summertime. The agencies got donations around Christmas, but by June, they were running out of food. They decided to start Project Salina with the purpose of collecting food and donating it to the agencies every June.
The agencies that benefit from Project Salina are the Emergency Aid Food Bank, the Salvation Army, the Salina Rescue Mission, the Ashby House and DVACK.
The five agencies have had a dramatic increase in client numbers and they are struggling to keep food on the shelves for those that need it. Project Salina has changed the way they distribute food to those agencies. They now fill the needs of the agencies throughout the entire year. When an agency is running low on food, Project Salina purchases the food they need so they can continue to help those that need it.
That is why Project Salina strongly encourage cash donations instead of food donations. That allows the agencies to receive specific food products anytime they need it.
If you would like to donate cash to Project Salina, you can mail checks to Project Salina, PO Box 2861, Salina KS 67402-2861. You can also drop off cash donations at Central National Bank, 454 S. Ohio; make sure the envelope has “Kristina Litchman, Project Salina” on it. Make checks payable to “Project Salina”.
The food gathering effort starts May 1 and ends May 31.