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MLK Day of Service distributes food, despite snowy weather

A group of people sort blue bags of food in a room with pictures on the walls.
Mike Desmond
/
WBFO News

This is Martin Luther King National Day of Service. Locally, it's been hampered by the weather, but continues.

There was a big cleanup on the Day of Service scheduled for the African American Heritage Corridor along Michigan Avenue in Buffalo, but it was postponed because of the forecast winter storm. Other events continued.

Three young people, bundled for the cold weather, bend over boxes of food.
Mike Desmond
/
WBFO News
Many young people took part in Monday's MLK Day of Service in Hamburg.

In Hamburg, there were bags of donated food in driveways in anticipation of the town's 10th annual King Day of Service. It's sponsored by an array of agencies, including the Service Collaborative, Hamburg High School, AmeriCorps, the village Parks & Recreational Department, FeedMore and Feed Hamburg.

Collaborative Participant and Volunteer Engagement Director Adam Bartoszek said the food is even more important as food insecurity rises.

"We came together, about 10 years ago to really engage and encourage individuals to serve the community," he said. "Based on our previous partnership with those two entities and came together and formulated a wonderful project that engaged many volunteers, pre-COVID, and really allowed individuals to make a difference in the community."

Hamburg's Day of Service has raised 117,000 pounds of food over the last 10 years. Looking at the latest U.S. Census figures, the town is north of 95% white and around 1% Black.

Mike Desmond is one of Western New York’s most experienced reporters, having spent nearly a half-century covering the region for newspapers, television stations and public radio. He has been with WBFO and its predecessor, WNED-AM, since 1988. As a reporter for WBFO, he has covered literally thousands of stories involving education, science, business, the environment and many other issues. Mike has been a long-time theater reviewer for a variety of publications and was formerly a part-time reporter for The New York Times.