Project Feed the Thousands, the largest food drive in southeastern Vermont and southwestern New Hampshire, has launched its 18th annual winter food drive.
“In recent years, thanks to the efforts our local communities' involvement and generosity, we've been amassing 25 trailer loads of food and up to $125,000 each year. We've had to get better and do more, because the need is growing,” cofounder Larry Smith said in October. “That urgency continues.”
The annual effort, which began this month and runs through the end of the year, gathers 62,500 bags of nonperishable food items and toiletries and the cash to help six agencies in the region through the cold winter months.
Donations are distributed to the Brattleboro Area Drop-In Center, the Chester Andover Family Center, the Deerfield Valley Food Pantry, Our Place Drop-In Center in Bellows Falls, the Townshend Food Shelf, and the Hinsdale Welfare Department.
According to the website, cash donations “will be used to purchase needed grocery items from bulk suppliers at significant savings.”
Food donations - tuna, pasta and pasta sauce, peanut butter, soups, crackers, rice, canned meals, canned fruits and vegetables, canned protein items, baby food, baby formula, juices, and cereals - may be dropped off directly to the six agencies or at hundreds of other designed Project Feed the Thousands drop-off locations at stores, schools, and businesses in the region.
Non-food donations, including toiletries, feminine hygiene supplies, and diapers, are always needed as well.
Smith, the communications director at Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee and former news director at WTSA, founded the food drive in 1994 with George Haynes, then-president of Brattleboro Savings and Loan.
Smith and Haynes have planned to step aside and will serve as “advisor co-chairs” this year to new co-chairs Kelli Corbeil, WTSA owner and general manager, and Jeff Morse, president and CEO of River Valley Credit Union.
Benefit concert
Project Feed the Thousands will benefit from a concert for all ages in Putney on Saturday, Dec. 3 by Draw the Line, the only Aerosmith Tribute Band to be endorsed by the iconic rock act.
David Hull, who performed with Aerosmith in 2007 and 2009, will perform as a special guest.
A pre-concert party with the band takes place at the Putney Inn from 4 to 6 p.m. The concert starts at 7 p.m. at the Greenhoe Theater at Landmark College.
Tickets are $20.
Other performances have tied in to the charity, including this November's annual Gathering in Gratitude show from the Mahalo Art Center in Brattleboro and October's Brattstock.
WTSA, one of the concert's sponsors, will promote donations by broadcasting on Nov. 23 from Wal-Mart, Route 119, Hinsdale, on Dec. 3 from 4 to 6 p.m. from the Putney Inn, and on Dec. 22 from Hannaford Superstore, Putney Rd., Brattleboro.