Organizers of the annual Walk & Knock, the community’s largest food drive, are working to ratchet up donations Saturday and bounce back from a bad 2012.
Volunteers will be canvassing neighborhoods from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and picking up bags of food for Lower Columbia CAP’s Help Warehouse, which distributes the food to families in need.
Donation bags, which will be distributed in Thursday’s print edition of The Daily News, should be put out near your front door for collection.
Donors can also drop off food at the CAP Warehouse in downtown Longview and at other sites in Cowlitz County.
In 2012, volunteers collected 48,000 pounds of food, a 12-year low that was about half of the 2011 total. The drive last year was held before many people had cashed their paychecks and went shopping, organizers said, adding that they also failed to adequately publicize the event.
This year, the Columbia Theatre is announcing Walk & Knock on its marquee, and other businesses are promoting the event on electronic reader boards. Fred Meyer checkers are placing reminders in shoppers’ bags, and area Safeway stores are selling $10 bags of food for shoppers to donate.
“We are hoping that this year no one will be surprised to learn that they missed Walk & Knock,” organizer Tom Gunn of Early Edition Rotary said in a written statement.
Donors can write checks to CAP and place them in the envelopes provided on the donation bags.
Donation bags can be placed at front doorstops by 9 a.m. Donors can also drop off food these locations in the Kelso-Longview area:
- Lexington Fire Station
- Rose Valley Fire Hall
- JC Penney at the Three Rivers Mall in Kelso
- Lowe’s on Ocean Beach Highway in Longview
- Walmart on Ocean Beach Highway in Longview
- CAP’s Help Warehouse at 1526 Commerce Ave.
Other drop-off sites in Cowlitz County are the Castle Rock Lion’s Club, Kalama Helping Hands Food Bank and the Woodland Community Service Center.
Preferred items includes dry and canned goods, nonperishable food, infant formula and toiletries. CAP cannot accept home-canned goods, fresh produce and meat, or bulk foods in plastic bags.
The Daily News, Longview, Wash.
