A drive-thru holiday food drive on Saturday helped stock the NeighborImpact Food Bank.
For the third year Bend Park and Recreation District set up an easy drive-thru option for those wishing to spread the holiday cheer.
For years the district collected food in those blue barrels, but the pandemic cause a pivot to a drive-thru format that’s stuck around.
With inflation pushing food prices up NeighborImpact has seen an increase in demand of over 20 percent from last year.
“We also see that people are super generous. The folks that are pulling up here with their donations are handing us bags of food with a big smile, and they want to help their community,” said Kim Johnson the community engagement supervisor with Bend Park and Recreation District.
By late morning cars were rolling through the Pavillion’s overflow parking lot in Southwest Bend.
“We got a lot of food in our family. We have money for it, so we got to share the wealth,” said donor Kimber Petrovich who had just finished some grocery shopping.
If you missed the drive-thru you can still drop off food donations in the blue collection barrels at The Pavillion, Larkspur Community Center, Juniper Swim and Fitness, and the District’s office through the holidays.
