BY DAVID MAMARIL HOROWITZ

david.horowitz@bgdailynews.com

The nonprofit United Way of Southern Kentucky is organizing the annual “Feed the Need” food drive this week.

UWSK will collect unexpired non-perishable goods at stores regionwide 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday. UWSK volunteers will be at store entrances in “Live United” shirts to collect donations.

Goods will be sorted throughout the weekend, and on Tuesday, nonprofits in each county will select what they need, said Elizabeth Newbould, USWK’s marketing and communications specialist.  Probably more than 300 volunteers will be involved Friday and Saturday, she added.

Food collected in a county stays in that county, Newbould said.

“It doesn’t have to be canned goods — one of the huge things that’s needed is cereal, or granola bars, or boxed meals (…),” Newbould said.

Over the past 15 years, more than a million goods have been donated through UWSK’s Feed the Need initiative, Newbould said, and last year, the initiative collected nearly 65,000 items.

“This year, the aim would be 70,000 items, but we’ll be happy to collect whatever we can collect (this) weekend,” Newbould said.

Some 710,000 residents experience hunger statewide, including one in five children, according to the nonprofit Feeding America. Nearly 15% of the population experienced food insecurity across Warren County in 2022, the nonprofit states.

Donations will be accepted at various stores across Allen, Barren, Butler, Hart, Logan, Simpson and Warren counties. UWSK will post the stores at uwsk.org/events on Thursday.

The nonprofit confirmed the following Warren County locations so far:

• Dollar General Market: 180 River Place Ave., Bowling Green
• Priceless IGA — Louisville Road: 3170 Louisville Road, Bowling Green
• Crossroads IGA — Mt. Victor: 2560 Mount Victor Lane, Bowling Green
• Kroger — 31W Bypass: 350 West, US-31W, Bowling Green
• Kroger — Campbell Lane: 711 Campbell Lane, Bowling Green
• Kroger — Scottsville Rd: 2945 Scottsville Road, Bowling Green
• Priceless IGA — Russellville Rd: 1901 Russellville Rd, Bowling Green