AKRON, Ohio — Every other Tuesday, 72-year-old Jeanette Johnson gets 25 pounds of food, including multiple cans of fruits and vegetables, delivered to her Akron apartment.
The retired housekeeper on a fixed income is very grateful for the deliveries. She said getting to the store on her own is challenging because of high grocery prices and her car is not reliable.
"The struggle is not as real as long as I got the food to come in," Johnson said.
When the pandemic started, the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank partnered with DoorDash, which donated their services, to deliver groceries to thousands of residents. Many of them were home-bound seniors or those facing transportation roadblocks, like Johnson.
The Foodbank still receives some support from DoorDash, but with the end of the public health emergency, there is an increased need for volunteer drivers to deliver food and meet the demand in the community.
Katie Carver Reed, vice president of the Foodbank, said while there is less talk about COVID, the need for home deliveries remains great.
"I think sometimes when we have the ability to leave the house when we want to get the things that we need when we need them, we don't really think about people that don't have accessibility," Carver Reed said.
Foodbank officials said some folks don't have access to public transportation or supportive people in their lives to rely on to bring them groceries.
The food bank just launched a recruitment effort for its home delivery program. They're hoping to find at least 20 volunteer drivers with a goal of delivering 20,000 food boxes by the end of the year.
"Basically, they would sign up to volunteer with us, and we would assign a route for them, so depending on where they live— where's most convenient for them— they will be given a route for about 10 households, and they would go and deliver those groceries to the neighbor's door," Carver Reed explained.
Volunteers will deliver groceries to homes twice per month. They will use their own vehicles to transport food and will need to have a smartphone with internet access.
Currently, the program is offered in Stark, Medina, Portage and Summit counties.
Click here to volunteer as a delivery driver or to support the food bank in other ways.
Johnson, who is aware of the need in the Akron area, said she's hopeful that more volunteers will step up to help others in need.
"I hope y'all get more volunteers because there's a lot of people in Akron that's hungry," Johnson said. "I think it's very important because some of us, we can't get out to get it."
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