Black Bears host ‘Bear Necessities for a Good Cause’ food drive

MORGANTOWN, W.Va (WDTV) - The West Virginia Black Bears are stepping up to the plate to fight hunger in the Morgantown area.

The organization is partnering with Pantry Plus More to host the “Bear Necessities for a Good Cause Food Drive.”

“At the end of the day, we realized a lot of organizations do holiday food drives. Then toward mid-spring and the summer, it gets a lot slower for a lot of places. So, we thought ‘Well we are a baseball season. We operate during those times.’ It’s the best time for us to get some preseason stuff done by reaching out to the community and trying to do some kind of community event that gives directly back,” said Leighann Sainato, General Manager.

The food drive starts Wednesday, Feb. 1st and goes through the end of the month.

There are seven different participating dropoff locations around Morgantown.

“We do have Saturday events scheduled all through the month of February. We’ll be doing a pop-up event at some of these locations, so every Saturday in the month of February, you can donate during these events and get free tickets for the 2023 season. We are doing a grand prize giveaway you have to register for at the drop off locations. All of this stuff is put in order to get people to participate.”

This isn’t the Black Bears first philanthropic project. They actually do one every year, and the proceeds always go to a food bank to combat hunger.

“I believe that, as an organization, you tend to get caught up in revenue and things that make a business function. At the end of the day, we are a baseball team, and we rely on the support of our community. As someone who’s directly from this community, it only makes sense that we give back to the same people that we want to support us.”

A list of what items you can donate can be found here.

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