It's always busy this time of year at United Methodist Food Pantry in East Moline as employees work to fill their shelves for the upcoming winter months.
"We service East Moline and Silvis," said Sue Swartz, director at the United Methodist Food Pantry. "Last month we served 413 families and that amounted to about 1,200 individuals."
Many of the people the food pantry serves have large families, with four or more children in one household.
That's why the Quad Cities Student Hunger Drive is so important for food pantries this time of year. It's a campaign by area high school students to collect and donate food to the River Bend Food Bank in Davenport.
Each year, the River Bend Food Bank distributes 8 million pounds of food to food pantries on both sides of the river.
Swartz said they look forward to the Quad Cities Student Hunger Drive every year because it helps them gear up for the long winter.
"It's big, I can't even tell you how much this helps in our community to meet the need," Swartz said.
The Quad Cities Student Hunger Drive kicks off with a party at the River Bend Food Bank on September 29 and will go until November 6, with a finale rally to close the competition.