U.S. Attorney's Office Gives To Local Food Pantries

SHREVEPORT/LAFAYETTE, La. – United States Attorney Stephanie A. Finley announced that the U.S. Attorney’s Offices in Shreveport and Lafayette recently collected more than 1,600 pounds of food and non-perishable items that were delivered to two local food pantries.

In all, both offices collected 1,626 pounds of food to be donated to the Food Bank of Northwest Louisiana located in Shreveport and the FoodNet: The Greater Acadiana Food Bank, located in Lafayette. The Shreveport U.S. Attorney’s Office gathered 1,378 pounds of the total and the Lafayette U.S. Attorney’s Office gathered 248 pounds. Donation boxes for the Feds Feed Families food drive campaign were located at the federal courthouses in Shreveport and Lafayette and at the Federal Public Defender’s Office (Midsouth Bank Building in Lafayette). The food drive campaign ended August 29, 2014. Federal employees donated goods such as bags of rice, pasta, canned and boxed goods, bottled water and other non-perishable items.

“The donations and work of federal employees in our district will help feed those in need,” Finley said. “Their efforts are helping to fight hunger and give back to our communities. I want to thank those who donated, but also the volunteers who worked to collect and spread the word about this campaign.”

The Food Bank of Northwest Louisiana began in 1995 when a group of individuals from churches with food pantries and benevolent organizations met to discuss the need to establish a local Food Bank to serve the parishes of Northwest Louisiana. The Food Bank of Northwest Louisiana is the largest distributor of donated food for the seven-parish area and is one of only five food banks in the state. They sort, warehouse and distribute food to more than 120 non-profit organizations in the seven-parish region, which includes: Caddo, Bossier, Bienville, Claiborne, Desoto, Red River, and Webster parishes. For more information about the Food Bank of Northwest Louisiana, visit their website at www.foodbanknla.org or call (318) 675-2400.

FoodNet: The Greater Acadiana Food Bank, a non-profit food bank serving Lafayette Parish, was established in October 1987. FoodNet has distributed tens of thousands of tons of food since opening, and presently serves several agencies including: Faith House of Acadiana women’s shelter, the Children’s Shelter, St. Joseph Shelter for Men, Acadiana Youth Shelter for Girls, St. Joseph Diner, the Red Cross, Alleman Center, Acadiana Cares, St. Francis Foundation for Substance Abuse, and the Arc. For more information, visit www.foodnetacadiana.org or call (337) 232-3663.

Feds Feed Families was started when Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) and former Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry realized that food donations were dropping during the summer months because many families were on vacation. The campaign has run every summer since 2009, and to date, it has collected more than 24.1 million pounds of food, including 9 million pounds last year alone. In the United States, 50 million people are challenged with hunger, including 17 million children.

For more information visit www.usda.gov/fedsfeedfamilies or call the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Louisiana, at 337-262-6618.