Our Family Tree
Learn about the generous donors who have established charitable funds through Stark Community Foundation.
In partnership with The Repository, every Monday, Stark Community Foundation is highlighting positive happenings in our community. Here’s to Good News Mondays!
At its main campus in Akron and Stark County Campus in Canton, the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank recently celebrated 40 years of serving the community and reflected on the impact of its staff and thousands of volunteers committed to fighting hunger.
Since opening its doors four decades ago, the Foodbank has distributed more than 560 million pounds of food to the local community.
The Foodbank provides access to millions of meals each year, but over the past few years, the organization has focused on direct service to the community and its network of hunger-relief partners. As the organization has grown, it’s honed an effective and efficient model to source, store and distribute surplus food. In 2021, it distributed 30 million pounds of food, the equivalent of 22.5 million meals, through 600 food programs across its eight-county footprint.
“Forty years after our founding, the Foodbank is an agency of great depth and impact,” said Dan Flowers, Foodbank president and CEO. “Not only does the organization and its network provide critical support for families facing hunger in this region, but it serves as a beacon of hope for people during their lowest moments.”
Through various partnerships, thousands of senior citizens receive food boxes to help supplement their diets, and even more children are served through backpack and after-school programs. Its collaboration with DoorDash helps deliver food boxes to individuals with mobility issues or who are homebound, and hundreds of thousands of pounds of food are distributed directly to community members at grocery distributions at both campus locations.
The Stark County Campus houses its own food pantry and resource center, helping connect families with food and other wraparound support services. New, innovative partnerships with local health systems have connected patients to nourishing food, and to reach rural communities, the Foodbank’s mobile pop-up pantry visits neighborhoods with limited food resources. The Foodbank delivers food orders directly to hunger-relief partners to help save fuel costs, wear-and-tear on vehicles, and staff and volunteer time, and more than $4 million was invested in its hunger-relief network in 2021.
“I think we all wonder at times what our lives are about, what our purpose is. Hopefully, the thousands of people who have poured love upon this Foodbank will see a meaningful legacy reflected in this milestone,” said Flowers. “Their help has mattered not just to the Foodbank, but to millions of people over the decades. We sincerely thank all who have supported the mission of this organization.”
Learn more about the Foodbank at www.akroncantonfoodbank.org.