Channel 9 Food Drive
At E.R. Services one of our core passions is helping our community. Our owner, Dave Parker, and the E.R. Services staff volunteer in a variety of ways, and the WSOC TV Channel 9 Food Drive is an annual favorite.
E.R. Services began partnering with WSOC TV through the Family Focus program in 2016. That means we've provided a donation location and many volunteer man-hours staffing and supporting the food drive each year. 2019 will be our fourth year collecting, transporting, and delivering non-perishable food for the yearly drive.
The food drive starts in May each year. Join us as we do our best to make sure all Charlotte metro area persons in need have nourishing, nutritious food to feed their families.
2020 Food Drive: Happening Now!
Help a Neighbor Feed Their Family Today!
COVID-19 has caused food pantries to run out of supplies. We need your help today to keep the families of Charlotte fed. Can you contribute?
Second Harvest Food Bank needs funds to purchase healthy shelf stable items for food boxes. These boxes will help feed families whose children are missing school meals, seniors being asked to stay safely in their homes, those in need of food who are quarantined, and employees in our community being impacted by decreases in work hours. Within the next 30 days, Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina will be packing tens of thousands of these food boxes.
We are encouraging different giving levels. So people can equate their monetary donation to what can be supplied by the food bank, here are some of the examples that can be used.
- A donation of $25 that will help provide a seven day nutritionally balanced food box. The boxes are filled with a variety of times (protein - peanut butter, cereal, fruit and vegetables). Each box varies depending on what Second Harvest can get in.
- A donation of $13 for a food box that will include 12-13 healthy staple items
- A donation of $7 that will help provide an additional backpack for children missing school meals.
The SHFB staff is packing 2500 boxes a week. An additional 10,000 boxes a week are being packed at the convention center by volunteers. All the boxes are already committed before they are even packed. The boxes are the best way to do things right now.
Here is the site to donate: http://www.9FoodDrive.com
2019 Food Drive: Stamp Out Hunger
April 29th - June 8th, E.R. Services collected nonperishable food items to be distributed through food pantries in the Charlotte area. In support of our new partnership between WSOC TV, E.R. Services, and the National Association of Letter Carriers, we also supported the 27th annual Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger® Food Drive.
This year’s 9 Food Drive was the biggest ever with an increase of over 10,000 pounds in donations from last year’s record-breaking collection.
At 101,135 pounds of food, 2019 was the largest collection since the 9 Food Drive began in 2006. With this contribution to Second Harvest Food Bank, over 700 shelters, food pantries and soup kitchens will be able to supply at least 75,000 meals to our neighbors in need.
How You Can Help This Year
- Saturday May 11th, place your non-perishable food items in your mailbox and a postal service worker will deliver them to the food shelf.
- April 29th - June 8th, drop off nonperishable food items at our office in Mint Hill and we will get them to the food shelf for you.
We're excited to see how much we can collect this year. Last year we broke records, and we hope to fill the shelves of food shelves around the area again this summer. Let's make a difference together!
Partnership with WSOC TV Channel 9 Family Focus
We are a proud partner of 9 Family Focus, WSOC-TV’s special program highlighting local organizations and individuals who are doing good for our community.
Each year, E.R. Services of Charlotte donates time, energy, man-hours and our office space to support the WSOC TV Channel 9 Food Drive.
We provide donation barrels at the office and receive canned goods and nonperishable food items from our generous fellow citizens during the drive. We also promote the food drive, helping WSOC TV get the word out.
Our staff is dedicated to fighting poverty, so we work together to make a dent any way we can. The Channel 9 Food Drive is just one of our favorite ways to make a difference. At special events designated by WSOC TV, we staff the donation stations and lend our muscles and hearts.
The food drive happens every spring; read to hear about our last three food drives, and check back for details about 2019!
Pictures from 2018 Food Drive
Our staff was proud to help out this year!
Question: How many meals will this year's WSOC-TV 9 Food Drive contributions to Second Harvest Food Bank supply?
Answer: 75,000!
This year’s 9 Food Drive was the biggest ever—a 114% increase in donations over last year. There were 90,042 pounds of donated food. Thank you for your generosity!
2017 Food Drive
Each year we are amazed at the amount of good we can accomplish when we come together. The 2017 Channel 9 Food Drive brought in 20,223 pounds of food and $3,121 in monetary donations. Each dollar Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina received was the equivalent of seven pounds of food, so the food and financial donations resulted in the equivalent of 42,069 pounds of food, which provided approximately 28,046 individual meals for Charlotte area families in need.
The 2018 Channel 9 Food Drive was the biggest ever—a 114% increase in donations over last year. There were 90,042 pounds of donated food.
Seniors, children, men, and women throughout a 19-county area were given access to nonperishable food items through this effort.
We feel quite blessed as we contribute to those less fortunate and get to witness the good hearts of so many other Charlotte citizens.
2016 Food Drive
This was the first year E.R. Services volunteered with the food drive, and the turnout and community impact moved us so much that we committed to promoting and serving through this month-long effort every year. The following are just a handful of the pictures collected from days of volunteering.