By Haylee Pence

[email protected]

TROY – The Miami County Public Health Department recently completed a food drive in honor of June being Hunger Awareness Month.

Throughout the month of June, the entire department collected food items to be donated to the Community Food Truck Blessing Boxes located throughout the county. The items collected had to be nonperishable food items which include canned chicken, ramen noodles, applesauce cups, rice, soup, beans, fruit, canned vegetables, and peanut butter crackers.

This is the first time the department has held the food drive, but they hope to make it an annual event.

“Food security and access to healthy foods directly impact the well-being of our community. Many of our staff have seen the Community Food Truck Blessing Boxes around the county. Discussions about how they get filled led to the idea for the food drive,” stated Amy Cain, social worker with Miami County Public Health.

To spark some friendly competition, the various sub-departments competed against each other to collect the most items. Miami County Public Health collected 1,001 items to donate to the boxes. The winning sub-department was the administration division with 497 items, which received a hand-made trophy for their efforts. The runner-up was community services with 204 items.

“The items were placed in the Community Food Truck Blessing Boxes each Friday throughout the month of June. We were able to place items in 16 of the 19 blessing boxes,” Cain said

“The mission of MCPH is to be a proactive partner within the community that works to prevent illness, promote health, and protect those who live, work and visit Miami County. We raise awareness for many topics related to health. We hope that the donations will help provide easy access to food. The blessing boxes are spread throughout the county which reduces the barrier of transportation.”

For a list of the Blessing Boxes locations, please visit www.thecommunityfoodtruck.com/locations.