Madison TV station NBC15 (WMTV-TV) is seeking online donations to help a local food bank during the COVID-19 crisis.
As of Friday, The Care Box Challenge has raised $186,299 (which includes $48,500 in matching funds) to benefit the Second Harvest Food Bank of Southern Wisconsin.
Second Harvest anticipates it will need to provide 100,000 boxes of food over the next six-to-eight weeks to help families affected by the coronavirus due to the cancellation of schools and closures of many businesses.
“When you recognize the impact of the COVID-19 virus on our community, you simply want to help,” WMTV-TV General Manager Don Vesely said. “Second Harvest Food Bank of Southern Wisconsin is seeing a large increase in demand for food and household goods. Our goal is to fill this demand in the short-term with a ‘Care-Box-Challenge.’”
Each care box will be filled with healthy, fresh food and non-perishable staples.
“After schools were cancelled statewide, I knew there’d be challenges for families based on our previous work with Second Harvest,” WMTV-TV News Director Jessica Laszewski said. “My Facebook feed that following weekend was filled with posts from friends offering to help each other. This, and a conversation with a grocery bagger really resonated with me. We wanted to do something and were hopeful others felt the way we did.”
The effort is still underway. Second Harvest needs 100,000 Care Boxes to meet the demand. The estimated need is about $1 million.
