15th District-wide Food Drive Nets 44,200 pounds

Bloomington Public Schools and its business and civic partners collected more than 7,600 pounds of non-perishable food and $10,000 in monetary donations during its week-long District-wide Food Drive late last month.

The collection totaled 44,241 pounds when the cash donations to pounds conversion is applied, and will provide nearly 37,000 meals. Each dollar donated accounts for three meals, and each meal is approximately 1.2 pounds. All of the food and cash is donated to Volunteers Enlisted to Assist People (VEAP), a non-profit agency serving low-income families and individuals in Bloomington, Edina, and Richfield. VEAP serves 10,000 people a month, more than half of whom are children. 

The Bloomington Parent & Family Advisory Council coordinated the annual food drive. This year’s total pushes the total collected to 451,700 pounds over the past 10 years, which accounts to more than 376,000 meals.

Bloomington’s public schools, early childhood centers, central departments and business and civic partners participated in the drive, including The Arts Creative, Bloomington Acura Subaru, Bloomington Fire Department, Cafe Fusion/Ryan’s Cafe, Early Learning Advisory Council, Gyropolis, Just for Kix Dance, Martin Luther Care Center, My Credit Union, Northstar Tavern, Oak Grove Presbyterian Church, Perk Up Kitchen/West Side Perk, St. Michael’s and St. Stephen Lutheran churches.