ANNAPOLIS, MD – First Lady Yumi Hogan today joined the Maryland Food Bank in accepting 40,000 pounds of food from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

For more than 35 years, the Maryland Food Bank has partnered with communities across the state to distribute food to individuals and families in need. Currently, it distributes more than 120,000 meals per day – nearly 44 million meals annually – and operates from three facilities in Baltimore, Salisbury, and Hagerstown.

“I’m happy to be here today to accept this donation with the Maryland Food Bank, knowing that it will help those Marylanders who need it the most,” said First Lady Hogan. “And I’d like to especially thank the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for being so generous to our state.”

This donation is an addition to Day to Serve, during which more than 600,000 pounds of food already were collected throughout Maryland to distribute to those in need – double the amount collected in 2015. Also an improvement from last year’s Day to Serve were the number of hours spent volunteering – 145,000 total hours, a 30 percent increase – and the amount of non-food charitable donations raised — $94,000, almost four times that of 2015.