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Davis Journal

Largest food drive in Utah sees one more successful year

Mar 23, 2023 11:50AM ● By Alisha Copfer

Cheveya from the Bountiful 27th Ward places food items in a bin at the Food Pantry in Bountiful because she “wanted to help out.” Photo by Roger V. Tuttle

BOUNTIFUL—Every March, for many years, for a long time, communities have come together all across Utah to help their local food banks. Like most years prior, the Bountiful Food Pantry was no exception. On Saturday, March 18, the Feed Utah Drive brought in over 150,000 pounds of food from local residents to the Bountiful pantry.

Over 66,000 flyers and bags were distributed throughout Davis County to inform residents of this food drive. Then on Saturday, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sent members into their neighborhoods to gather the bags of food. “Over this week, we will see even more of these brought in,” said Anderson.

Unlike other smaller ones, this food drive involved many people and organizations coming together for a greater cause. “We had an army of people gathering food for the drive,” said Bountiful Food Pantry Executive Director Rebekah Anderson. 

Anderson explained that in Bountiful, things have to work just a bit differently due to “the generosity of the community.” The food pantry isn’t set up for that many donations at a time, so they set up three satellite locations for the day (Woods Cross High School and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Ward buildings in Centerville and Farmington) in order to participate in this state-wide collection event. “This system makes it easier for people to donate,” Anderson said.

From volunteers helping to collect the bags of food to organizations donating equipment to help move it from place to place, the pantry seemed particularly excited this year. Anderson said she had three semi trucks provided to help the cause, two from Pride Trucking and one from Walmart. These semis helped to move the donations from the satellite drop off locations back to the pantry in Bountiful.

Once all the food donations were back at the pantry, they also had forklifts provided to help move things around; Holly Refining Company provided one. The pantry had many volunteers at all of the locations to help sort the food and get it to where it needed to be.

Anderson said this event is hosted by the Utah Food Bank and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints working together. “With all of these partners, everybody gets together to help on that one day,” she said.