HARVEST FOR HUNGER Food bank hopes drive brings supplies, fast cash

Food bank organizers hope to bring in $20,000 and 50,000 pounds of food.
By PAUL WHEATLEY
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Some people are taking great pains to raise funds and food during Harvest for Hunger, the local Second Harvest Foodbank's food drive, which runs through March.
Girard resident Randy Arnold, 49, plans to fast for 36 hours, just as he has during the past five campaigns. The Parker-Hannifin Corp. business analyst will attend work March 22 like any other day -- except he'll drink plenty of water and be enticed by fellow workers with donuts.
Arnold raised about $1,400 through pledges by fasting last year and hopes to improve upon that amount this year.
Upped ante: During previous campaigns Arnold fasted for 24 hours. But he said that felt too easy because he really missed only two meals, so he upped the ante.
"After 36 hours, I'm hungry," he said. "It's my little way of doing something that helps out the food bank."
This year local food bank organizers hope the work of Arnold and others brings in $20,000 and 50,000 pounds of food to support those in need in the Mahoning Valley. Through nearly 200 area agencies, the Youngstown Second Harvest chapter feeds about 10,000 people each month.
Agency spokeswoman Liz McGarry said the Harvest for Hunger is its only public campaign of the year.
Agencies such as the Sojourner House Battered Persons Crisis Program use Second Harvest food to feed women and children escaping domestic violence.
Schools help: Schools around the Valley such as Austintown Fitch High School, St. Joseph School and South Range and Brookfield Elementary schools are all holding food drives.
The Trumbull Career and Technical Center in Warren is collecting boxes of cereal and food to be used in a giant domino-effect structure, which students will design and topple March 30 in the center's cafeteria.
St. Elizabeth Health Center, LTV Steel, the United Auto Workers and others are also getting in on the act.
People can donate food at Giant Eagle and Sparkle Super Markets and at the South Avenue Ohio Edison office.
Last year about 34,000 pounds of food and $15,000 was raised locally.