Applications have been coming in at a brisk pace for this year’s Kiwanis Club of Snyder Goodfellows food drive.
The Kiwanis Club expects to provide more than 400 Snyder people with food assistance this holiday season, members say.
Of course, however, there is a catch — with more applications comes the need for more money to purchase and distribute more food to needy families Dec. 16.
Collection drives at area schools are expected to provide the lion’s share of the canned good items needed for the drive, but club members said cash donations are lagging behind previous campaigns.
As with many charity drives across the country, the Kiwanis’ Goodfellows effort has been affected by the struggling economy.
“We use monetary donations to purchase perishable food items, like beans, rice, chicken and eggs,” said club member Darryl Calley. “We used to be able to raise enough money that we’d have enough funds for the next year, which made for a good rotation, but it’s not that way anymore. Right now, we have about $1,900 for the drive, and we usually spend between $5,000 and $8,000.”
Past President Justin Rosson said that “unless someone goes crazy and just gives us a lot of money,” everything raised this year will go to finance food purchases in December.
“The more money we raise, the more families we can help,” Rosson said. “The money we raise for Goodfellows stays with Goodfellows. None of it goes into the club’s general budget.”
Area residents can donate money to the Goodfellows drive at any time, but the cutoff for this year’s effort is Dec. 9, Calley said. Donation boxes are at all Snyder banks, and people may mail donations to Kiwanis/Goodfellows, P.O. Drawer 112, Snyder, TX 79550.
The application deadline for this year’s drive is Dec. 4. Applications for the food drive will be published in the weekend edition of the Snyder Daily News through Dec. 2.