Carver Financial, Captains, and End 68 Hours of Hunger launch annual food drive

Carver Financial Services, the Lake County Captains and End 68 Hours of Hunger Lake County are partnering for the 37th annual Client Appreciation Event food drive on July 31 in Mentor, Ohio. The effort aims to collect shelf-stable food for local children who depend on school meals during the week and may face hunger over the weekend.

Why it matters: - The food drive supports local children who rely on free and reduced-price school meals and may not have enough to eat when school is out. - The annual event has become a long-running source of meals and food donations for families facing food insecurity in Lake County.

What happened: - Carver Financial Services, the Lake County Captains and End 68 Hours of Hunger Lake County are teaming up for the 37th Annual Carver Financial Services Client Appreciation Event Food Drive. - The drive takes place Friday, July 31, during Carver Financial Services' Client Appreciation Event at Classic Auto Group Park in Mentor, Ohio, home of the Lake County Captains. - Clients attending the game are encouraged to bring nonperishable food donations. - The requested items with the greatest need are canned fruit, peanut butter, jelly in plastic containers only and canned soup.

The details: - End 68 Hours of Hunger Lake County is a volunteer-driven nonprofit that provides weekend food bags to local children. - The organization sends shelf-stable food home with students each Friday so they have food until they return to school on Monday. - Since 1988, Randy Carver, founder and CEO of Carver Financial Services and registered principal of Raymond James Financial Services, Inc., has made giving back a central part of the firm's annual Client Appreciation Event. - Over the past 37 years, attendees have donated the equivalent of more than 400,000 meals and over 140,000 pounds of food to help Lake County families. - Community members can learn more or donate through End 68 Hours of Hunger Lake County.

Between the lines: - The partnership turns a client appreciation event into a recurring community food-collection effort, which helps make donations more predictable year to year. - The emphasis on shelf-stable, weekend-ready food shows the drive is aimed at a specific gap in children's nutrition, not just general pantry support. - The nonprofit's volunteer model and the firm's long-term event structure suggest the effort depends on sustained local participation rather than one-time fundraising.

What's next: - Organizers will collect donations at the July 31 event. - End 68 Hours of Hunger Lake County will continue using food contributions to assemble weekend bags for children during the school year. - Carver Financial Services and the Lake County Captains are expected to continue the annual partnership if the event remains successful.

The bottom line: - The annual food drive is a local, recurring response to childhood hunger that channels game-day attendance into weekend meals for children in Lake County.