Businesses begin summer food drive to help needy Utahns

SALT LAKE CITY — The summer months can be filled with fun, vacations and activities for many Utahns as they take advantage of warm weather and time away from school or work.

But the summer months also spell the longest drought of donations to the Utah Food Bank in a time when families are scraping to provide for young and hungry mouths not being fed at school.

Luckily, many of these families again will be taken care of because of the efforts of Utah businesses such as EnergySolutions.

For the second consecutive year, EnergySolutions is sponsoring the Summer Business Food Drive. The company got the drive under way last week with a donation of $17,000 to the Utah Food Bank.

The goal for the 2010 Summer Business Food Drive is to collect 250,000 pounds of food through inviting companies to host food or fund drives between now and Aug. 31.

Any business or company is invited to participate and can hold either a traditional drive or an online drive through the Utah Food Bank's website, www.UtahFoodBank.org.

"What we are trying to do is offer options to companies," said Ginette Bott, the food bank's chief marketing officer. "Those in a commercial place, like a bank, find that it's more difficult to have food brought in. So they like the virtual food drive."

The virtual food drive gives companies the option of donating online through the means of selecting food items or simply donating money.

The Summer Business Food Drive has been running for four summers and is vital to the operation of the Utah Food Bank during the tough summer months, Bott said.

"Summer is really the time when we are down volunteers, food contributions and financial contributions," she said.

Bott said the drop-off occurs because people become busy with summer vacations and activities, and needy families ask for more because children are out of school. Children make up 42 percent of the food bank's clientele.

"Hunger knows no season," Bott said. "People are hungry all the time — particularly when school is out, since there are no school lunch or breakfast programs."

KeyBank, the other sponsor of this year's event, will serve as a drop-off location, along with the Utah Food Bank, 3150 S. 900 West. All KeyBank locations in Salt Lake County are participating in the program, said Utah Food Bank spokeswoman Jessica Pugh.

Businesses interested in participating and registering for the food drive this summer can find additional information at www.UtahFoodBank.org or by calling 801-978-2452.

e-mail: danng@desnews.com