Feed the Need Food Drive donates to Local Food Banks

NBC Bay Area / KNTV will team up with

“This year our ‘Feed the Need’ drive takes on extra importance and urgency in light of the devastation of the Napa and Sonoma wildfires,” said Stacy Owen, NBC Bay Area President and General Manager. “We’re proud to be able to give people an easy way to help their neighbors in need.”

"As we continue to meet the existing need for food assistance in our community, and increase our provision of help for our neighbors impacted by the Sonoma Complex Fires, we are thankful that NBC Bay Area and Safeway have created a simple way for anyone to help feed a local family," said David Goodman, the Redwood Empire Food Bank's CEO. "Donations of food and funds are critical during this time of increased need in our community and in communities throughout the Bay Area. Through this drive, we have an opportunity to provide more food to more our neighbors experiencing hunger."

For nearly ten years, NBC Bay Area has partnered with Safeway to help stock the shelves of local food banks.

In addition to helping get the word out to the community, the station will be enlisting the support from hundreds of volunteers – including NBC Bay Area anchors and reporters helping at their own neighborhood Safeway stores – on Saturday, November 18 to encourage shoppers to donate.

On “Feed the Need” day and through December 26, anyone can visit one of the 167 participating Safeway stores to purchase a $10 bag of food items that will be donated to the local food banks. At each store, shoppers can remove a flyer from the tear pads located in the display area and bring the flyer to a register to purchase the bag of donation food items. Each bag of food will contain pasta and sauce, canned vegetables, soup, and important protein items like peanut butter and canned chicken breast. Once collected, the food will be delivered to food banks for distribution to needy families.

Last year, the food drive collected more than 360,000 bags at Safeway stores across the Bay Area, nearly tripling the amount from the previous year and amounting to more than 2,880,000 pounds of food for those in need.