Artichoke Festival holds a successful Drive-up/Drop-off food drive on April 9, 2020, benefitting Food Bank for Monterey County.
The current COVID-19 Shelter-in-Place orders have placed tremendous pressures on local food bank’s abilities to cover shortages in Monterey County. Since its inception in 1959, the Artichoke Festival has embraced a mission of giving back to the community through a family-oriented celebration. But because the Festival has had to reschedule it’s two largest fundraising events of the year from Spring to late Summer, and with the number of families experiencing hunger increasing as time goes by, the festival organizers decided to hold a Drive-up/Drop-off Food Drive on Thursday, April 9 to benefit the Food Bank for Monterey County.
With two locations in Castroville and Prunedale, the food drive was a great success. Designed to be a simple and safe method for gathering donations, Festival volunteers gathered 399 lbs. of non-perishable food, and collected more than $400 in cash donations.
Food Bank for Monterey County is the largest and most comprehensive provider of emergency supplemental food and a key proponent of anti-hunger education and advocacy. Because of the added stress placed on families and individuals by the social distancing measures in place through May 3, the Festival Committee is considering a repeat of the food drive in May.
Those who want to help, but could not make a trip to drop-off their donation, can still go online to www.artichokefestival.org/about-festival/donate/ and donate money directly. Choose the specific charity, including the Food Bank and enter in an amount if you do not wish to donate the specified amount, then hit the “donate now” button. One-hundred percent of all donations will be forwarded to the charity of choice.
