A new line of eco-friendly shopping bags can be seen at grocery stores in the coming months, thanks to the inspiration of friends of the Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry.

The food pantry announced the launch of “Fed Up With Hunger,” which seeks to address the need for year-round donations. Fed Up With Hunger began as an effort of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. When pantry volunteer Neil Dunski heard of the initiative from a friend, he knew that it could easily be adapted to meet the needs of the greater St. Louis area.

Through corporate sponsorships- including THF Realty and others – 10,000 reusable shopping bags have been printed with the words “Fed Up With Hunger.” These bags will be distributed at Jewish daycares, preschools, Sunday schools, and synagogues, as well as within the Jewish Family & Children’s Service (JF&CS) community and area scout troops. According to program chair Cindy Hyken, recipients can use these bags for their family’s grocery shopping and, ideally, as a conscious reminder to fill the bags with food and personal items that can be donated to HKJFP at any time of year.

The food pantry serves more than 4,000 people per month – up from 1,500 per month this time last year. While contributions to the food pantry during the Thanksgiving and Christmas months are overwhelmingly generous, Fed Up With Hunger seeks to maintain a similar level of giving year-round.

“I’m very excited to see this program taking shape at our pantry,” said Joan Robinson, manager of the food pantry. “We’re uniting the green movement with charitable giving in order to meet the challenges of the future.”   

For more information, please call 314-993-1000 or visit www.jfcs-stl.org.