CHAMPAIGN, Ill – Spring has bloomed with community support at the Illinois Extension office in Champaign for the local Hygiene Drive. For the month of April, the Champaign County Extension office held a hygiene product donation drive in support of the CLU-W Hygiene Pantry of Champaign County.
The CLU-W Hygiene Pantry was founded to address the rising cost of basic care items. The pantry provides free hygiene essentials to individuals and families in our community who may have difficulty affording such products. In hosting this drive, Illinois Extension hopes to ensure community members have access to essential hygiene items that support health, dignity, and well-being.
This is the first hygiene drive that has been led at the Champaign County Extension office, and it was a smashing success. Numerous donations were received each week from members of the community. Donors dropped off various personal care and household goods weekly, sometimes daily, for the drive. One donor left bags of organic, handmade soaps and lotions that were made for their small business. Several donors brought in handfuls of plastic bags filled with goods purchased that day for the drive specifically and expressed interest in continuing to donate to the local hygiene pantry even after the month-long drive ended.
The donation box would be emptied weekly and taken to the CLU-W Hygiene Pantry of Champaign County, as the donation box would quickly fill up with various hygiene items. After the drive concluded on April 30, the donations received for that week were gathered and taken to the pantry. The final count for all donated goods included 139 full-size items, 850 travel-size items, for a grand total of 989 donated items.
For more information on the Hygiene Drive, please contact Tracy Bowden at tbowden@illinois.edu or Vanessa Jones at vjjones@illinois.edu.
To learn more about the CLU-W Hygiene Pantry of Champaign County and how to support the pantry directly, visit their website at www.cluwhygienepantry.org or contact them directly at hygienepantrycc@gmail.com or 217-249-8971.
University of Illinois Extension develops educational programs, extends knowledge, and builds partnerships to support people, communities, and their environments as part of the state's land-grant institution. Extension serves as the leading public outreach effort for University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences in all 102 Illinois counties through a network of 27 multi-county units and over 500 staff statewide. Extension’s mission is responsive to eight strategic priorities — community, economy, environment, food and agriculture, health, partnerships, technology and discovery, and workforce excellence — that are served through five program areas — 4-H youth development, agriculture and agribusiness, community and economic development, health and community wellness, and natural resources, environment, and energy.