Nearly 3,000 pounds of food was donated to the Madera County Food Bank in August as part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s fourth annual Feds Feed Families food drive. Officials said that much food represented a huge increase from previous years.
The food drive, which ran the entire month, placed donation bins inside city and county offices and resulted in 2,859 pounds of donated food.
“Last year we got, I think, maybe 311 pounds,” said Ryan McWherter, executive director for the Madera County Food Bank. “And that was the total for all of last year. So this is a big improvement, and we’re very excited about the city and county agencies stepping up for this.”
The donations came from at least 10 agencies’ offices and included the City of Madera Parks and Community Services, First Five, the Madera Redevelopment Agency, the Madera County Workforce Agency, the Madera County Government Center, Madera’s Farm Service Agency, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Rose Aguayo, assistant regional director for the USDA, said the drive was started...