Over 9,000 pounds of donations have now been collected for the Thanksgiving in July food drive.

Ron Hall, founder of the drive, states that with additional donations from CBI Bank & Trust, Cafe Dodici and United Methodist Church the cash and food donations equals 9,110 pounds or 4.5 tons of food. Organized by Mercy Iowa City, United Way of Johnson & Washington Counties and Washington HACAP, from July 8th through the 22nd residents gave food and monetary donations to go directly to the HACAP Food Pantry in Washington and then be distributed to individuals and families in need of assistance throughout Washington County.

Hall explains the importance of holding this drive, “In the summer months school is out, kids don’t get the benefit of some of the food programs during the school year. A lot of people are doing vacations and there’s RAGBRAI going on and there’s a lot happening, I think the food pantries get overlooked just a little bit. During the holiday season everybody thinks ‘Okay, we’ll donate for Christmas, Thanksgiving,’ but that need is all year long. February 5th is as important as December 25th.”

This was the first year for the drive in Washington County, and the KCII Big Red Radio took part in the drive, broadcasting live from donation drop-off locations as part of the KCII Summer Town Tour.