LeeTran collected 178,200 pounds of food Sept. 21 in its 6th annual “Fill Our Fleet to Feed the Hungry” food drive, exceeding both its goal and last year’s total.
Sunday’s record-setting collection brings LeeTran’s six-year grand total to 611,521 pounds of food donated to the Harry Chapin Food Bank of Southwest Florida.
Food drive partner, Publix Super Markets, sold donation bags for three weeks prior to the Sept. 21 “Fill Our Fleet” event. On Sunday, LeeTran vehicles and volunteers visited all 33 Publix in Lee County to stuff the buses. Generous shoppers also gave $1,904 in cash, which the food bank can leverage into an additional $11,424 in food for the hungry in our area.
Last year’s food drive brought in 167,957 pounds; LeeTran set this year’s goal at 175,000 pounds after learning that the food bank’s supplies were severely depleted.
“The LeeTran drive comes at the perfect time of year for us,” said food bank President and CEO Al Brislain. “Our inventory was extremely low because of the high demand over the summer.”
Food bank staff and volunteers have already begun sorting and packaging the non-perishable foodstuffs for distribution to its 150-plus partner agencies.
“We’re very proud to be able to use our fleet of vehicles once a year for such a good cause,” said LeeTran Director Steve Myers. “We started this event in 2009 when our county was hard-hit by the recession, and it’s very gratifying to know that we’ve put food on the tables of tens of thousands of hungry families.
“I’d especially like to thank our partner, Publix, without whom we couldn’t have made this drive a success,” Myers said, “as well as the generosity of the thousands of Publix customers who donated.”