She wasn’t trick-or-treating, but several Octobers ago, Lisa Corley was making the rounds of her neighbors.
“We walked around collecting canned goods door to door,” said Corley, the chief operating officer of Seigler’s Karate Center, of her introduction to It’s Spooky To Be Hungry, a grassroots food drive benefiting the Golden Harvest Food Bank. “It was fun to participate in that.”
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Her experience led to the creation of a trunk or treat at the karate center to help the food bank. The event garnered the karate center a small business award for its efforts. This year’s trunk or treat will be from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Oct. 30 at the center, 4150 Washington Road, Evans.
Other local businesses and individuals have joined them to decorate their vehicles and hand out candy.
“We had 300 kids last year, and we are expecting about 500 this year,” said Katy Chaffin, senior coach program director.
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Corley said last year’s event raised $1,000 and 2,500 pounds of food. The goal this year is $2,000 and 4,000 pounds of food.
Businesses such as Seigler’s, individuals, school groups, community organizations and churches all play a role in the October campaign, according to Amy Breitmann, food bank executive director, which has evolved some especially during the pandemic.
“It used to be a canned goods drive,” she said.
People would have neighborhood events and go door to door, like Corley did, collecting bags of food one October Saturday each year. With the pandemic, people began hosting virtual fundraisers and collecting more monetary donations.
Not everyone felt safe going to the grocery store buying canned goods, and people didn’t feel safe going door-to-door in their neighborhoods picking up the donations, Breitmann said.
Food donations are important, but Breitmann said the food bank is able to stretch dollars donated.
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“For every $1, we can provide three meals,” said Breitmann.
Last year’s It’s Spooky To Be Hungry campaign brought in $197,000 — the largest amount ever raise. That’s enough for nearly 600,000 meals. This year’s goal is $200,000.
Evelyn Brown started It’s Spooky To Be Hungry in 1992 with the “goals of bringing people of all ages together in fun, significant, community-building volunteer event to fight hunger,” according to a news release from the food bank.
It began with one neighborhood in Rochester, Minn., then expanded to three neighborhoods in Columbia County. By 2006, it had become the “single largest grassroots service project in the CSRA,” the news release continued.
It became its own charity, and in 2013, Brown turned the fundraiser over to the food bank. The Golden Harvest Food Bank serves 25 counties in Georgia and South Carolina, providing more than 12 million meals through 175 partner agencies to nearly 300,000 families.
People can participate in It’s Spooky To Be Hungry in several ways.
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They can start a virtual food drive at itsspookytobehungry.org, make a donation or participate in a neighborhood event by distributing door hangers and collecting food on Oct. 30. Information on how to run a neighborhood campaign is available at the website. Businesses and schools can host food drives.
Other ways of supporting the event can be found at itsspookytobehungry.org.
Charmain Z. Brackett is the Features Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com.
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