Find a Location
Search this Site
Make a Donation
Community Food Drive to Help Hungry in Tulare County
TULARE, CA—In response to increasing poverty rates and the drought’s impact on the economy, The Salvation Army of Tulare County has joined forces with FoodLink and The Tulare County Fair once again to host a “Community Food Drive” to collect food and funds for those individuals in need throughout Tulare County.
This year’s Community Food Drive will be held on Thursday, September 11th. Individuals that bring 5 or more cans of food, or other non-perishable food items to the Fair between the hours of 3:00p.m. and 10:00p.m. will receive free admission into the Fair on that day only. Donations should be non-perishable food like canned meat, canned soup, canned vegetables or fruit, pasta, beans, rice or cereal. Cash and checks are also appreciated, but will not grant individuals entrance into the Fair. For every $1 donated, The Salvation Army and FoodLink of Tulare County can buy $5 worth of food through their bulk suppliers! All food collected will benefit the local communities of Tulare County and will be distributed via FoodLink and The Salvation Army.
“The need for food is great and we need the communities of Tulare County to come together and step-up to the challenge,” said Captain Harold Laubach, Jr. of The Salvation Army. “Our goal is to collect 25,000-lbs. of food to ensure our food pantries have enough to give to those in greatest need right here in our community.”
The theme of this year’s fair is “Farms, Food, Family, Fun: Celebrate the Bounty of the County.” The Tulare County Fair Community Food Drive encourages local citizens to share that bounty by donating what they can to helping Central Valley neighbors in need. This includes individuals and families impacted by consistently high unemployment rates, growing poverty rates, and the impact the severe drought is having on the local economy.
In a May 2014 report, University of California, Davis representatives projected that this year’s water shortages would cause direct and indirect income losses to the Central Valley ranging from $1.2 billion to $1.7 billion. The report projected up to 14,500 additional jobs lost on top of those already perished by the previous drought activity.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Tulare County’s unemployment rate is 12.6% (as of July 2014) and has remained at double-digit levels since the recession of mid-2008. 24.8% of Tulare County lives below poverty level (nearly 1 in 4 individuals), and as many as 50,000 kids in Tulare County alone go unfed or underfed each day.
The Salvation Army and FoodLink provide healthy food to over 255,000 need people every year in Tulare County. The Salvation Army can feed a family of four, for a week, for $33. Each year, The Salvation Army distributes nearly 13,000 emergency food boxes, delivers over 12,000 meals to seniors or shut-ins at their homes and provides over 49,000 families with assistance other than food throughout Tulare County.
“We’re grateful to the Tulare County Fair and FoodLink for their partnership and providing a fun and rewarding way for the public to help feed hungry families,” said Captain Laubach. “And I hope we can reach our goal. The average daily fair attendance is 15,000 visitors: if every one of those visitors brings five cans of food each, we’ll more than surpass our goal."
Individuals and/or businesses interested in making monetary or food donations toward the Tulare County Fair Community Food Drive but are not able to participate on September 11 are encouraged to call (559) 687-2520 for more information on how to participate.