Monday, 28 February 2000 Unused Y2K stocks are welcome bounty for food bank

Y2K fears are a thing of the past, but the hungry are still benefiting from the precautions some people took.

At least 10,000 pounds of food, stockpiled in case of catastrophe, has been donated to the Tucson Community Food Bank since January, events director Holly Reck says.

``It's been fantastic,'' Reck says of public response to the agency's Y Go 2 Waste campaign, which sought donations of food hoarded in anticipation of Y2K problems.

The size of some donations surprised food bank staff.

``One woman came in with an entire pickup truck full of food. She had stockpiled a three-week supply for herself and all of her neighbors,'' said Reck.

``There were two other people who had each put aside over 1,000 pounds of food apiece, and they brought it in to us.''

She says the donations made a substantial dent in the agency's current food shortage, which resulted from a lean response to December's annual food drive.

Only 90,000 pounds of food was collected then instead of the 200,000 pounds normally taken in.

If there's anyone else out there with Y2K canned goods lurking in the larder, ``we could sure use it. We'll be happy to take it off your hands,'' says Reck.

Donations can be dropped off at any Allstate Insurance office in Tucson.

- Carol Ann Alaimo

http://www.azstarnet.com/public/dnews/066-8675.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), February 28, 2000