Food bank raising hunger awareness with new giant spoon

September is National Hunger Action Month and The Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri is participating in a big way.

Tuesday, The Food Bank along with Columbia’s Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors unveiled a 16 foot, 212 pound orange spoon that will sit near the entrance of the building for the entire month.

Hulett Heating and Air Conditioning built the massive spoon. It’s currently in the process of certification with the Guinness Book of World Records for the world’s largest orange spoon.

Throughout September, the Food Bank is also giving out small plastic orange spoons to the public to help spread their message and help fight hunger.

“We’re encouraging people to take these orange spoons and use this as a way to build awareness through social media,” said Lindsay Young Lopez, Executive Director of the Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri. “We’re encouraging them to take a ‘spoonie.’ But the whole point is even though this is fun, there is a serious message.”

Young Lopez said one in five people are considered hungry in their service region, which covers 32 counties across the state.

“We are serving about 114,000 people on monthly basis,” she said. “We also are distributing through our buddy pack program about 7,500 buddy packs on a weekly basis. Here in Boone County, the numbers are still really staggering. We’re serving about 14,000 people on a monthly basis and then through the Buddy Pack Program about 1,700 children weekly.”

Young Lopez said the giant orange spoon will most likely make an appearance outside of The Food Bank again next September.