AMHERST, N.Y. (WKBW) — In the 14th year, Rock Out Hunger broke their record for monetary donations and non-perishable donations.
Overall, $36,000 in donations were raised in addition to the 32,400 pounds of non-perishable food that has already been totaled. That total includes 12,388 pounds from Kaleida pre-event drives.
Nearly 2,600 turkeys were donated, not matching last year's total.
The amount of money and food donated will go toward feeding needy families in WNY. While a lot, Feed More of WNY is hoping that the donations continue throughout the entire season.
"We always need year round support, so we do ask the community to continue to remember FeedMore WNY and our less fortunate neighbors during this holiday season," Catherine Shick, communications director of FeedMore WNY said.
DJ Jickster from 97 Rock spent the last week inside a trailer in the parking lot of Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital collecting the food.
"Blows me away every year, look forward to it and then there’s always a great story that comes out every year of f somebody that just either needed the Food Bank at one time. I see a lot of people donating that have a job right now but fear they might need the food bank someday," Jickster remarked.
"The need does continue to grow, month after month, year after year," declared Anne McKenna, chief of communications, FeedMore.
"We’re heading into the really cold months and sometimes, you know, you have to make a decision between paying the heating bill or putting food on the table," described McKenna.
All the 'Rock Out Hunger items will now be prepared for distribution.
"What they’ll do is they'll take a look at everything that’s come in for the food drive – they’ll check the expiration date – make sure it’s within FDA guidelines and then we’ll sort this into boxes that we can send out to our agencies where they will distribute that to the clients in need," explained McKenna.
There were boxes and containers filled to the top with all kinds of canned goods. Items like peanut butter and jelly, green beans, cans of soup, canned tomatoes and much more.
