Loveland, Ohio – The Life Food Pantry says their shelves are getting low and they are looking for neighborhood reps, sports teams, congregations, book clubs, businesses, and others to run food drives.
Please consider organizing a food drive and email fooddrives@lifefoodpantry.org to schedule a day and time to drop off donations (due to heavy client traffic it’s important to schedule a drop off).
Take part in the 2024 LIFE Food Pantry Annual Fundraising Campaign, which will raise awareness and donations for LIFE‘s many programs that serve the northeastern suburbs of Cincinnati and the entire 45140 zip code. Keep reading for ways to get involved this year!
Since 1988, LIFE has provided food and financial assistance to Loveland and surrounding communities. Sadly, the number of our neighbors reliant on LIFE for their food source has doubled in the last four years alone. In fact, we are currently serving 14% of all Loveland residents — including hundreds of seniors and nearly 1,000 children — and our 2024 distributions show the demand is increasing. These neighbors can also experience financial crisis and LIFE was able to provide more than $44,000 in assistance in 2023.
Our services are dependent on the generosity of our wonderful community and there are so many ways you can get involved:
MONETARY SUPPORT A monetary contribution to our annual contribution helps us keep our programs thriving and able to meet the growing demand of our neighbors. Click here to donate online.
FOOD DONATIONS / FOOD DRIVES Help stock our shelves by dropping off food items during our normal business hours or host your own food drive! We can help! Click here or email fooddrives@lifefoodpantry.org to learn more about food drives.
SPREAD THE WORD Tell everyone about LIFE Food Pantry and the work we do for the community. Download and post a BE A LIFE SAVER flyer or spread the word through social media by clicking on these icons:
David Miller is the Managing Editor of Loveland Magazine.
UPDATE: Loveland Schools reports that students and staff donated more than 6,000 food items.
Loveland, Ohio – I met Nancy Grant at the corner of Lebanon Road and Durango Drive right across from the Prince of Peace Lutheran Church this morning where she was directing traffic for the 22nd Annual Pass it On Food Drive. Hundreds of Loveland Intermediate School and Loveland Middle School students were carrying food to the church that they donated to the LIFE Food Pantry. The food will be packaged into Thanksgiving baskets for local residents and clients of the pantry.
The children walked about 3/4 mile to hand deliver the food.
The food drive was started by Nancy Grant to heal wounds after the terrorist attack on 9/11. The purpose is so that clients of the LIFE Food Pantry and other residents in the community can eat well at Thanksgiving and later in December.
Grant said twenty-two years ago, “Well, we can’t change the world, but we can change our little corner of it.” She had this idea to line up the kids down the street and pass the food donations one bag and box, hand-to-hand at a time to one another until it reached the church. A pay it forward so children could feel good about themselves. She thought it worked after 9/11 and has ever since. The students didn’t exactly “pass-it-on” to one another like they used to, but each carried their own donations to the church.
After the donations arrive, adult volunteers will sort, date-check, organize, and assemble a Thanksgiving meal box to go out to area families. The huge effort is to ensure that all our Loveland families and singles will have the items they need so they can sit down together and enjoy a traditional meal for the holiday.
I never put a title to photographs, however, this will be an exception. In honor of our Loveland school children, “The Everyday Table Shakers“.
David Miller is the Publisher of Loveland Magazine
by David Miller
Loveland, Ohio – Loveland Magazine was invited to the LIFE Food Pantry Pass it On Food Drive last Friday to witness hundreds of students walking food donations from their school to the Prince of Peace Lutheran Church on Lebanon Road. The two buildings are about 3/4 mile from each other.
This was the 20-year anniversary of the food drive started by Nancy Grant to heal wounds after the terrorist attack on 9/11. It has always been scheduled ahead of the holiday season. The purpose is so that clients of the LIFE Food Pantry and other residents in the community can eat well at Thanksgiving and later in December. This was Libby Westerman’s third year of organizing the food drive throughout the Loveland schools
Ahead of Friday, LIFE Executive Director Linda Bergholz explained how extremely important the event is for the pantry. She said, “As you all know, Thanksgiving is coming up and for us at the food pantry. It is an extraordinarily important time of year. Food insecurity has always been important. Food insecurity during a Pandemic is enormous.”
Grant said twenty years ago, “Well, we can’t change the world, but we can change our little corner of it.” She had this idea to line up the kids down the street and pass the food donations one bag and box, hand-to-hand at a time to one another until it reached the church. A pay it forward so children could feel good about themselves. She thinks it worked after 9/11 and will now – during the Pandemic. This year the students at the Loveland Intermediate and Middle schools didn’t exactly “pass-it-on” to one another, but each carried their own donations to the church.
After the donations arrived, volunteers sorted, date checked, organized, and assembled a Thanksgiving meal box to go out to area families. The huge effort is to ensure that all our Loveland families and singles will have the items they would need so they can sit down together and enjoy a traditional meal for the holiday.
Each classroom/grade K-4 also had specific items to collect that were delivered to the church in cars and vans.
Here is a very short timelapse video of the food being delivered and a few photos of the donations.
As we move into the season of gratitude, we are so thankful for our donors and our volunteers that work together to make the holidays brighter for families in our community that need a helping hand.
Without the dedication, long hours, giving spirits, and loving hearts, the LIFE Food Pantry wouldn’t be able to provide Thanksgiving Box Meals, the Holiday Giving Shop and Holiday Bag Meals.
From canned goods to gift cards, from turkeys to stuffing — all of your donations fill the boxes with meals for the season. New coats, toys, household items, clothing, stocking stuffers fill our Holiday Giving Shop tables with gifts for the holiday guaranteed to bring happy smiles to both the littles and the seniors and everyone in between.
Your generosity touches the lives of so many, and for this we give thanks.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
Linda Bergholz, Executive DirectorLIFE Food Pantry
Loveland, Ohio – “So, for all of you who are grocery shopping this weekend, please keep us in mind and up the items you could donate to the Pass It On Food Drive,” said Libby Westerman on Monday evening.
Loveland Magazine was invited to the LIFE Food Pantry on Monday so we could help spread the word about this year’s annual food collection that for the past 20-years has always been scheduled ahead of the holiday season.
Every year, along with the assistance of Loveland City Schools, a food drive takes place to collect items to disburse as Thanksgiving boxes – to clients of the LIFE Food Pantry and other residents in the community as well as holiday bags for later in December.
Westerman is in her third year of organizing the food drive throughout the Loveland schools and wanted to give parents and others in the community a heads-up about participating.
In this LOVELAND MAGAZINE TV video, LIFE Executive Director Linda Bergholz explains how extremely important the event is for the pantry. She said, “As you all know, Thanksgiving is coming up and for us at the food pantry it is an extraordinarily important time of year. Food insecurity has always been important. Food insecurity during a Pandemic is enormous.”
Bergholz introduces Westerman and Nancy Grant who founded Pass It On in 2001 as a way children could give to the community and heal after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Grant said twenty years ago, “Well, we can’t change the world, but we can change our little corner of it.” She had this idea to line up the kids down the street and pass the food donations one bag and box, hand-to-hand at a time to one another until it reached the church. A pay it forward so children could feel good about themselves. She thinks it worked after 9/11 and will now – during the Pandemic.
Westerman tells you how you can participate and Grant tells you about the origin, and because of the Pandemic, why it is still so important for the children and our community.
You don’t want to be that parent that opens up a backpack on the morning of the drive and discovers at the bottom an unread note and realizes there are no canned cranberry sauce or Mandarin oranges in the cupboard that your child is supposed to take to school that morning. Each classroom/grade K-8 will have specific items to collect, bring to school, and pass along to the food pantry.
Students at the Loveland Intermediate and Middle schools will walk the food the several blocks to Prince of Peace Lutheran Church down the road from their school where it will be sorted and eventually given away.
This year’s “Pass It On” will be on Friday, November 19th.
This is a heads-up to grandparents and guardians as well because your child can probably only participate if you do some early shopping for them.
Many students and volunteers deliver the donations from the food drive to Prince of Peace Lutheran Church where volunteers sort, date check, organize and assemble a Thanksgiving meal box to go out to area families. The huge effort is to ensure that all our Loveland families and singles will have the items they would need so they can sit down together and enjoy a traditional meal for the holiday.
Each classroom/grade K-8 will have specific items to collect. When your child brings home information about the Pass It On Food Drive, please be generous when you send your donations with them to take to school.
Here is the shopping list. You can also download and print this shopping list to take with you while grocery shopping.
Loveland, Ohio – “So, for all of you who are grocery shopping this weekend, please keep us in mind and up the items you could donate to the Pass It On Food Drive,” said Libby Westerman on Monday evening.
Loveland Magazine was invited to the LIFE Food Pantry on Monday so we could help spread the word about this year’s annual food collection that for the past 20-years has always been scheduled ahead of the holiday season.
Every year, along with the assistance of Loveland City Schools, a food drive takes place to collect items to disburse as Thanksgiving boxes – to clients of the LIFE Food Pantry and other residents in the community as well as holiday bags for later in December.
Westerman is in her third year of organizing the food drive throughout the Loveland schools and wanted to give parents and others in the community a heads-up about participating.
In this LOVELAND MAGAZINE TV video, LIFE Executive Director Linda Bergholz explains how extremely important the event is for the pantry. She said, “As you all know, Thanksgiving is coming up and for us at the food pantry it is an extraordinarily important time of year. Food insecurity has always been important. Food insecurity during a Pandemic is enormous.”
Bergholz introduces Westerman and Nancy Grant who founded Pass It On in 2001 as a way children could give to the community and heal after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Grant said twenty years ago, “Well, we can’t change the world, but we can change our little corner of it.” She had this idea to line up the kids down the street and pass the food donations one bag and box, hand-to-hand at a time to one another until it reached the church. A pay it forward so children could feel good about themselves. She thinks it worked after 9/11 and will now – during the Pandemic.
Westerman tells you how you can participate and Grant tells you about the origin, and because of the Pandemic, why it is still so important for the children and our community.
You don’t want to be that parent that opens up a backpack on the morning of the drive and discovers at the bottom an unread note and realizes there are no canned cranberry sauce or Mandarin oranges in the cupboard that your child is supposed to take to school that morning. Each classroom/grade K-8 will have specific items to collect, bring to school, and pass along to the food pantry.
Students at the Loveland Intermediate and Middle schools will walk the food the several blocks to Prince of Peace Lutheran Church down the road from their school where it will be sorted and eventually given away.
This year’s “Pass It On” will be on Friday, November 19th.
This is a heads-up to grandparents and guardians as well because your child can probably only participate if you do some early shopping for them.
Many students and volunteers deliver the donations from the food drive to Prince of Peace Lutheran Church where volunteers sort, date check, organize and assemble a Thanksgiving meal box to go out to area families. The huge effort is to ensure that all our Loveland families and singles will have the items they would need so they can sit down together and enjoy a traditional meal for the holiday.
Each classroom/grade K-8 will have specific items to collect. When your child brings home information about the Pass It On Food Drive, please be generous when you send your donations with them to take to school.
Here is the shopping list. You can also download and print this shopping list to take with you while grocery shopping.
Loveland, Ohio – There is no better time than now to give back to your local community and that’s just what The Loveland Police Department and the Loveland Citizens Police Academy Alumni did! On Saturday, July 18th at the Loveland Madeira Kroger the two local organizations sponsored the Annual “Stuff-a-Cruiser” Food Drive, in order to benefit Loveland’s very own LIFE Food Pantry.
LIFE or Loveland Interfaith Effort is a faith and community-supported organization that provides food, financial assistance, and programs to those experiencing hardship in the greater Loveland area. LIFE is located at 101 S Lebanon Road and is open for donations Thursdays from 3 PM-6:30 PM and Saturdays from 9 AM-12:30 PM. LIFE also supplies Holiday Baskets during Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Hanukkah, and runs both a Giving Shop, which provides eligible families the chance to shop for new gifts for their families and a Student LIFE Shop, that provides much-needed items to students in the Loveland School District. LIFE also has a food pantry called Tiger Pantry, which provides Loveland students in need with necessary food items.
During the Summer months, the LIFE Food Pantry tends to get very low in food supplies because there are so many families that are at home (school is out which means no school lunch programs to fall back on) and in need of nutrition. This is why both the LPD and Loveland Citizens Police Academy sponsor the Annual “Stuff-a-Cruiser” specifically over the Summer.
This year volunteers held the “Stuff-a-Cruiser” Food Drive beginning at 9 AM on July 18th at the Loveland Kroger and collected food items and cash donations the majority of the day! Those within the Loveland community and those just casually grocery shopping were able to bring food items from their home to “stuff the cruiser” or could simply use Kroger’s “Click List” and select specific items to go towards “LIFE Food Pantry Stuff-a-Cruiser.” Shoppers were also able to leave a cash donation in LIFE’s designated donation jar located on their Food Drive display!
Peggy Goodwin, a member of the Loveland Citizens Police Academy, spent most of her day at the Food Drive event helping organize donations and couldn’t express enough how kind the community of Loveland is for the number of donations brought in!
“Inside the gym at Prince of Peace – as soon as a cart came through the door, volunteers immediately started sorting the grocery items onto tables by commodity. The Pantry estimates the value of the groceries, gift cards, and monetary donations at $4,000,” Goodwin said, “This provided a much-needed boost to help fill their ‘cupboard.’ This event speaks volumes to the kindness and generosity of the Loveland community – whenever there is a need, you can count on our residents to step up and do what they can to take care of their neighbors. What a great place to call home! And thank you, Cassie and Dave, for giving up your Saturday morning to come out to talk with us, see what was going on, and now spreading the word about some of the great things Lovelanders do to help each other,” Goodwin added.
Loveland Magazine Editor, David Miller, and I wanted to show our support for such a fantastic event so we spent time with Goodwin, LT. Amy Campbell, and many other volunteers at the “Stuff-a-Cruiser” Food Drive while taking in all the acts of kindness the Loveland community put forth through both food and cash donations. Both Miller and I brought over food donations ourselves as we encouraged those walking in and out of Kroger to do the same. Miller expressed that this particular Food Drive is one of the most important events held in Loveland every summer.
“This time of year is so vastly different from the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season when thinking about others comes so easy. Each penny families and seniors don’t have to spend on food can go instead to paying bills like rent and utilities,” Miller said, “These needs are something the greater community can help with and they really came through as usual with this reminder from the folks that worked so hard to pull it off.”
Being in the presence of such generosity at the “Stuff-a-Cruiser” Food Drive made me feel as though I was helping so many families in need and I encourage those within the Loveland community to always make time to give back. Being kind can allow us all to receive the ultimate reward in life…HAPPINESS! Now please enjoy the interview with Peggy Goodwin and LT. Amy Campbell as well as the photo album below from the Food Drive!
If you would like to donate food items or learn how you can get access to food benefits for you and your family go to http://www.lifefoodpantry.org/. Thank you once again Loveland for being a community filled with LOVE!
Cassie Mattia is the Associate Editor of Loveland Magazine and lives in Historic Downtown
by Cassie Mattia
Loveland, Ohio –It’s that time of year again for the Annual “Stuff the Cruiser” Food Drive sponsored by the Loveland Police Division and the Loveland Citizen Police Academy Alumni Association!
The food drive is scheduled for Saturday, July 18th at the Loveland Kroger store from 9 AM until 1 PM. There will be many smiling volunteers set up outside Kroger to accept all donations. The donations that are collected will be taken to LIFE Food Pantry where they will be both sorted and dated.
LIFE Food Pantry volunteer, Connie Rotterman is more than excited for this particular food drive because there have been so few since February in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This food drive will really help fill our pantry shelves and feed the over 300 families in Loveland that depend on LIFE Food Pantry each month for food,” Rotterman said.
If you would like to provide over 300 families with the food they need please take a few minutes out of your day to stop by Loveland Kroger on July 18th between 9 AM and 1 PM to donate food items!
Click the image below to read about all of the programs offered by LIFE Food Pantry…
Loveland, Ohio – On Saturday, July 13th the Loveland Police Division and Loveland Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association will be sponsoring their annual “Stuff the Cruiser” Food Drive benefiting the Loveland LIFE Food Pantry.
A police cruiser will be parked outside the Loveland Kroger on Loveland-Madeira Road.
Individuals can bring or purchase non-perishable food and help to “stuff” the cruiser. The Cruiser will be there from 9 AM until 1 PM.
Volunteers will have a list of suggested items to donate as you go into the store.
Last year over 800 items were donated making it LIFE’s largest summer food drive. As you may know, need goes up in the summer but donations drop. In a typical month, over 250 families (500 individuals) come to LIFE Food Pantry for assistance.
HOW TO GET INVOLVED![[VIDEO] 22nd Annual Pass it On Food Drive](https://lovelandmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/pass-it-on-2.jpg)
![[Video Interview] Thousands of Loveland Children will “Pass It On” and you can join them!](https://lovelandmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/pass-it-on.jpg)
by Cassie Mattia
