<%@LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" CODEPAGE="65001"%> Elizabethton Star Online Edition

Phil Bachman Toyota to host food drive for Second Harvest

From Staff Reports

   Phil Bachman Toyota is hosting a food drive for Second Harvest Food Bank through March 25.
   Those who participate by bringing canned food items to the Phil Bachman Toyota dealership may register to win tickets to the Charter Communications Pole Day, Sharpie 250 or the sold out Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Three sets of tickets are available and the winner will be announced during Food City Family Race Night at Meadowview on March 25.
   "The general manager of Phil Bachman, Bill Benton, is passionate about helping those in need in our community and is gracious enough to offer the reward of race tickets to help make this come true," states a news release from Second Harvest Food Bank.
   The mission of Second Harvest of Northeast Tennessee is to feed the hungry by securing donations of food from national and local manufacturers, grocers and individuals, and redistributing that food to more than 200 food pantries, soup kitchens, children's homes and other non-profit charities that feed the hungry in our region.
   Second Harvest is an affiliate of the national hunger relief organization, America's Second Harvest, and serves the eight counties of Northeast Tennessee. In 2003, they distributed more than 3.4 million pounds of food in those counties. In northeast Tennessee, about 14 percent of our population, or 68,000 people, are living at or below the poverty level.
   "In other words," the news release states, "people all around us are struggling to make ends meet and need our help. The effect of changes in government assistance and welfare reform on individuals and families has placed a larger responsibility on food banks. "This increased responsibility of feeding the hungry is especially apparent in Northeast Tennessee."
   For more information, call Benton at 282-9398, or Abby Simmons, community relations coordinator for Second Harvest, at 477-4053.
   For more information about Second Harvest, visit www.netfoodbank.org.