Market Street shoppers dropping spare change into the coin meters along Central Park helped generate $11,500 for Keep Us Fed Montgomery County, a food-rescue nonprofit serving the county.
The donation came through Market Street's Change for Charity program, which selects a new nonprofit beneficiary each quarter, Woodlands Online reported on Tuesday, Oct. 27. Patrons deposit coins into voluntary meters bordering Market Street's Central Park, and the proceeds go to the selected organization.
The program has raised more than $350,000 for local charities since its inception.
John Pearson, marketing director at Market Street, and David Blocker, president of the board of directors for Keep Us Fed Montgomery County, were pictured at the donation presentation, according to Hello Woodlands coverage of the announcement.
Where the money goes
Keep Us Fed Montgomery County rescues surplus food from restaurants, grocery stores, produce markets and dining facilities and redistributes it to people facing hunger. The organization says on its website that it has rescued and redistributed more than 7.5 million pounds of food since 2015.
The nonprofit's website lists more than 5.8 million meals provided to the Montgomery County community as of Dec. 31, 2023. The site also reports $13.6 million in economic benefit for its nonprofit recipient and nonprofit partners over that period.
In 2023, 1,072 individuals received three meals a day, every day, through the organization, according to the website.
Forty percent of food is wasted in the United States, yet more than 16% of people face food insecurity, according to Keep Us Fed's mission statement.
How to contribute
The Change for Charity meters sit along Central Park at Market Street in The Woodlands. The program rotates its nonprofit partner quarterly. Market Street has not announced which organization will benefit next quarter.
Residents who want to learn more about Keep Us Fed Montgomery County or volunteer can visit keepusfedmoco.org.
