By Linda and Dick Kirschten, project coordinators for the Martin's Additions Food Project 

Typically, donations to food banks spike in the late fall/early winter, when the holiday season starts in full swing, and—unfortunately—they taper off during the summer, when many folks are away on vacation.

But, as the Village of Martin’s Additions in Chevy Chase likes to remind us, “hunger knows no season.”

In fact, as The Washington Post reported in late July, the Washington, DC, metropolitan region faces "a growing hunger crisis," as many middle-class families that have never needed emergency assistance now "find themselves at food pantries" seeking supplemental supplies, Lynn Brantley, president and chief executive of the Capital Area Food Bank, told The Post.

You Can Help...

...without breaking a sweat, even during the dog days of August!

There is a donation box by the steps leading to the Village of Martin's Additions Office (7013-B Brookville Rd.), in the heart of the Brookville commercial strip.

Many of you stop (or at least drive by) there daily, so on your next trip, please remember to drop off a couple of cans or boxes of nonperishable goods.

Contributions to the Martin’s Additions Food Project—now in its fifth full year—are taken twice each month to the Manna Food Center warehouse, which distributes the food to families in need, as well as to institutions for low-income seniors and disabled or homeless residents throughout Montgomery County. The pounds add up—and truly make a difference to the less fortunate among us.