Comedian Jeff Dunham didn’t just entertain his fans when he was in town this week, he handed the South Plains Food Bank a big check.
“This is a $25,000 gift and that’s allowing us to provide the equivalent of 75,000 meals,” says South Plains Food Bank CEO, David Weaver. “He’s a really funny man, but he also has a really big heart and cares about what food banks are doing.”
Dunham is not the first celebrity to to make a donation, but he has donated the largest amount.
“He’s got a special endowment or funds set up for opportunities like this. It’s just to help us meet the needs of hungry folks out here in West Texas,” Weaver says.
Weaver says this donation is helpful to their current campaign, called ‘Together We Can.’
“We’re trying to make sure our food boxes contribute to a healthy lifestyle and healthy diet,” he says.
He says the donations are also helpful with the summer months coming up. It means more produce for the food boxes, but also more people in need, with kids out of school.
“This summer we’ll be gearing up for our summer food service program. We’re going to be working with probably about 33 or 34 different sites on the South Plains, some in Lubbock, some in other communities around Lubbock, to make sure that children have a place where they can go and get a hot meal, and a nutritious meal,” Weaver says.
He also says volunteers are especially important to the food bank. They give food, money, and their time.
“Those children that I’m helping now will be the ones that’ll be volunteering, donating, and stuff like that,” says Joe Nisbet, who had been volunteering for about 4 years at the food bank.
Weaver says if the public would like to get involved in the ‘Together We Can’ campaign, the food bank is asking people to make a $30 donation, and the’re asking people to commit for 1 year. Their goal is to get 1,000 people to make the commitment in order to serve 5 million additional meals.
