Alameda County Community Food Bank

Press Releases: 40 Churches to Collect 40,000 Pounds of Food in 40 Days for Food Bank

Contact: Kari Martell
(510) 636-4902

40 Churches to Collect 40,000 Pounds of Food in 40 Days for Food Bank

Oakland, Calif. (March 18, 2005) –Forty East Bay churches, including a Buddhist Temple in Alameda, a Catholic High School in Hayward, a Baptist church in San Leandro, and a Chinese Community Methodist Church in Oakland, are conducting Lenten food drives on behalf of the Alameda County Community Food Bank. These drives started on Ash Wednesday and culminate on Easter Sunday.

Lent is a period of fasting or repentance, where believers eat sparingly and often give up a certain food or habit. Congregants and members of the public are invited to attend services on Palm Sunday, March 20, or Easter Sunday, March 27th and bring a donation of canned food.

"Our shelves are depleted of holiday food resources, and we depend on community food drives like this to stock up for the busy summer months ahead, when thousands of Alameda County children no longer receive free or reduced price school meals," states Suzan Bateson, Alameda County Community Food Bank executive director.

"This food drive is just one of the ways we attempt to be relevant to our community," states Rebecca Buckley of First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley.