Goodwill of Western MO & Eastern KS and Harvesters-The Community Food Network announce partnership
Kansas City, MO – Goodwill donors are generous. In fact, often when people donate their clothing, furniture, and household goods to Goodwill thrift stores, they also ask to donate food and toiletries. Until recently, Goodwill was unequipped to accept such donations at its thrift stores. Realizing Goodwill could help feed the local community Goodwill formed a partnership with Harvesters-The Community Food Network. Now, donors and shoppers can donate to Harvesters and Goodwill at the same time by using Harvesters barrels at area Goodwill locations.
Making it easy for people to donate diverts excess food and goods from landfills while benefitting those in need. Goodwill and Harvesters chose to roll out the in-store food collection program after a successful test run earlier this year. This one-stop-donation-drop approach already helped collect and give more than 1,100 pounds of non-perishable foods to Harvesters. As Goodwill’s Overland Park Acting Manager stated, “I love it. As people drive through, they can see the barrel, and it has driven a few people to return to Goodwill to donate more food items to Harvesters.”
Goodwill’s thrift stores provide funds for Goodwill’s mission right here in Kansas City. In fact, 90¢ of every dollar Goodwill spends fund Goodwill’s mission to empower people with disadvantages and different abilities to earn and keep employment through individualized programs and services. “It’s satisfying to know that we’re helping maximize our donors’ generosity while meeting our community’s needs together with Harvesters. Through this collaboration, we’re giving old things new life, filling Harvesters Food Pantries, and helping individuals in our local community thrive as a whole,” summarized Klassie Alcine, Director of Community Engagement for Goodwill of Western Missouri and Eastern Kansas.
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About: Harvesters—The Community Food Network is this area’s only food bank and was Feeding America’s 2011 Food Bank of the Year. Serving a 26-county area of northwestern Missouri and northeastern Kansas, Harvesters provides food and related household products to more than 620 not-for-profit agencies including emergency food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, children’s homes and others. Agencies in Harvesters’ network provide food assistance to as many as 141,500 different people each month. Harvesters, which was founded in 1979, is a certified member of Feeding America, a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks, serving all 50 states. For more information, visit www.harvesters.org.
