Carson City Senior Center food drive Saturday

The Carson City Senior Center has partnered with Subaru of America, Inc. and Save Mart Supermarkets in the automaker’s annual Share the Love Event with a “Stuff the Subaru” canned food drive at Save Mart, 3620 N. Carson St., on Saturday, from 10 a.m. to noon.

The food drive benefits Meals on Wheels, serving meals to homebound seniors in Carson City. Courtney Warner, executive director of the Carson City Senior Center, said the Center provided 79,518 meals to homebound seniors during the period between October 2016 through September 2017.

“We are seeing a rapid uptick in the number of seniors who are in need of a warm meal every day in Carson City,” Warner said. “We deliver almost 300 meals daily at a cost of $6 per meal. We receive some federal funding for this, but we are looking at an annual deficit of $185,000 between federal and state funds and what it costs to operate Meals on Wheels locally.”

This year marks the automaker’s 50th Anniversary in the U.S. and, for the second year in a row, there will be no cap on the total donation from Subaru of America to its Share the Love charitable partners. At the culmination of this year, Subaru hopes to exceed a grand total of $115 million donated since the creation of Share the Love to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the event.

“Last year, we received just over $10,000 from the Hometown Charities portion of the Subaru Share the Love Event, which provided 1,700 meals for seniors,” Warner said. “We are hopeful to receive another gift this year to help us meet the shortfall and reach our goal of being able to feed all of our homebound seniors, both locally and nationally.”

From November 16, 2017 to January 2, 2018, Subaru is donating $250 for every new Subaru vehicle sold or leased to the customer’s choice of the following national charities with a minimum guarantee of $250,000: The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), Make-A-Wish, Meals on Wheels America and National Park Foundation. Also, pre-approved Hometown Charities may be selected for donation depending on retailer participation.

“It is part of our culture at Subaru to support causes important to our employees, retailers and owners and we are proud to have continued that tradition for ten consecutive years,” said Alan Bethke, senior vice president of marketing, Subaru of America Inc. “Through the Share the Love event, we are excited to continue our commitment to support our national and hometown charity partners and aim to donate $115 million in total by the end of this year’s campaign.”

In addition to the four national charity partners, Subaru retailers will again select a hometown charity for their customers to support. This year, more than 660 local charitable organizations are participating in the Subaru Share the Love event. With some retailers adding their own donations to the hometown charities, total donations by Subaru and its participating retailers are expected to exceed previous years.

Meals on Wheels America provides leadership to local, community-based programs dedicated to fighting hunger and isolation among the nation’s homebound seniors. Through Meals on Wheels, Share the Love has helped deliver more than 1.7 million meals to America’s seniors.

For information, email Courtney Warner at CWarner@carson.org, or call the Center at (775) 883-0703. The Carson City Senior Center is located at 911 Beverly Drive in Carson City.