Youth collect 6,000 pounds of food for food banks

Published 12:42 pm Friday, July 24, 2009

Bellevue youth participating in a new community food drive collected 6,451 pounds of food, which was distributed to three local food banks. Between 300 and 500 young people dropped off non-perishable food at Downtown Park on Saturday, June 27.

Traditionally, area young people have formed teams and converged on Downtown Park the last weekend in June for “Bellevue’s 24-Hour Relay Challenge,” a day and night of laps around the park to raise money for youth programs and make positive connections with adults and other kids.

To help meet unprecedented demand on local food banks, the city invited youth to participate in a food drive this year instead. Young people went door-to-door to collect food.

The food went to Hopelink, Overlake Service League and World Impact Network. Each food bank was received approximately 2,000 pounds of food.