Bloomington Public Schools and its business and civic partners collected more than 5,000 pounds of non-perishable food and $5,455 in monetary donations during its week-long District-wide Food Drive earlier this month.

The combined collection totaled 24,712 pounds when the cash donations to pounds conversion is applied, and will provide nearly 20,600 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 649,844 pounds over the past 16 years, which accounts for nearly 541,537 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, Early Learning Advisory Council, Full Tilt Tavern, Jerry’s Do It Best Hardware, Martin Luther Care Center, and Ze’s Diner.