Second Harvest's Holiday Cheer campaign aims to raise $100,000 by Dec. 24

Now through Dec. 24, Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio hopes to raise $100,000 to fund food pantries, hot meal programs and food distributions in Lorain, Erie, Huron and Crawford counties. The Holiday Cheer campaign, in its 41st year, has raised more than $1.6 million since its inception. Second Harvest President/CEO Julie Chase-Morefield said the Holiday Cheer campaign will help buoy Second Harvest and its partner programs through the end of the year. "These dollars that come through are going to help our programs, our food pantries especially, to be able to have additional food," Chase-Morefield said. This year, WOBL/WDLW partnered with Second Harvest to promote the campaign. The Oberlin-based radio stations' disk jockeys will be traveling throughout Lorain County from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 6 to pick up donations, while on-air staff try to raise $10,000 in one day. From Dec. 13-15, Ohio Metallurgical, First Federal Savings and Loan, Buckeye Community Bank and Wickens Herzer and Panza will match up to $10,000 in donations. Chase-Morefield said donations from grocery stores have fallen since the pandemic, forcing Second Harvest to purchase more food than it had in the past. She said while families coming through mobile distributions complain of high food costs, those same increases hit Second Harvest as well, especially for meats and protein items. She said purchased food now costs about $2 million per year, compared to $500,000 to $600,000 in years past. The Holiday Cheer campaign comes on the heels of Second Harvest's Thanksgiving food distributions. In Lorain County, volunteers served just shy of 2,000 families on Saturday at a distribution at Lorain County Community College. Chase-Morefield said volunteers had spent weeks packaging food boxes before that, and drivers left the organization's Baumhart Road center around 5:30 a.m. Saturday to bring truckloads of food to the college's parking lot. Between the four counties it serves, about 3,500 families came to Second Harvest's Thanksgiving distributions, she said. As the year comes to a close, partner agencies, and the people they serve, are nervous about having enough food to go around, she said. "It helps to make programs feel more confident to meet the need," she said. Last year the Holiday Cheer campaign raised about $93,000, according to a news release from Second Harvest. For more information, including how to donate, visit secondharvestfoodbank.org. WOBL and WDLW will be accepting nonperishable food items through Dec. 13. Donations can be dropped off 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday at 45624 U.S. Route 20 in Oberlin. To schedule a donation pickup for the station's on-air campaign Dec. 6, call (440) 774-1320. Needed nonperishable items include canned proteins like tuna, chicken and beans; peanut butter, whole-grain pasta or rice; canned vegetables and fruits, including low-sugar and low-salt items; shelf-stable milk and cereals or oatmeal. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.