SECOND HARVEST Food bank appeal

The 2008 goals of the food bank’s annual monthlong Harvest for Hunger in March are to raise $88,000 and collect 55,000 pounds of food. Here is more information about hunger and the Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley, which serves Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

It distributed 5.3 million pounds of food in 2007, including 1.4 million pounds of fresh fruit and vegetables.

It provides food to 165 hunger relief organizations, such as church pantries, homeless shelters and soup kitchens, shelters for battered women, and day care centers.

In 2007, it distributed 20,000 pounds of feed each day and provided food for 7,400 individuals each week.

It can distribute $15 worth of food for every $1 given.

The most-needed food items are canned tuna fish, meats and vegetables, peanut butter and cereal.

23,960 children in Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties live in poverty.

Thirty percent of emergency food recipient households have at least one adult working full time.

Source: Second Harvest Food Bank of Mahoning Valley