Donations Sought in Saturday Food Drive

As part of Hunger Action Month Regional grocery store chain Giant Food is asking local residents to help feed the hungry in Fredericksburg by bringing donations to their area stores. The "Stuff-a-Truck" event takes place on Saturday, Sept. 17 and will see Fredericksburg Area Food Bank trucks parked in Giant Food parking lots across the area. The event will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The food bank says non perishable foodstuffs are preferable. Their most requested itemas are peanut butter, canned meats, dry beans, pasta, pasta sauce, macaroni and cheese, instant potatoes, rice, dry cereal and oatmeal, pancake mix and 100 percent fruit juice. 

The Stuff-A-Truck event was created in 2002 by Giant as a way to generate donations for local food banks in the greater D.C. region. This is the second year the Stuff-A-Truck event will be serving the Fredericksburg Region. 

The Fredericksburg Area Food Bank has seen an increase in the number of clients it serves since the onset of the Great Recession in 2008. Unique to the D.C. region, say officials with the FAFB, is the rural nature of much of the territory which the food bank serves. Rural distances to grocery stores and job sites only compound the impacts of hunger and malnutrition.

In response, . Later this year, the program was expanded again with a new truck donated by Kraft Foods. .