Throughout September, the Eastern Illinois Food Bank is hosting events to raise hunger awareness in light of Hunger Action Month.

This week, the bank is holding an online campaign called "Snapshot of Hunger," said Cheryl Middaugh, director of marketing development at the food bank. The campaign encourages people to purchase $28 worth of food, take a photo of it and upload it to the food bank's online photo gallery. The campaign aims to illustrate how much food struggling families are able to buy in a week.

On Sept. 28, the Third Annual Hunger Symposium, a moderated discussion about hunger, will be held at the Champaign Public Library.

In an effort to raise money for the food bank, the Common Ground Food Co-op and Mervis Industries held a barbecue on Thursday. All proceeds from the event went toward their cause, Middaugh said.

"Hunger Action Month for us is less about donations and more about awareness," Middaugh said. She added that the food bank is holding the events to show how poverty is a manifestation of many issues — including hunger.

After a month of raising awareness, the food bank will be kicking off with a food drive on Oct. 3 at Memorial Stadium. The food bank is hoping to collect $100,000 and 200,000 pounds of food, Middaugh said.

"We are stepping up both of our goals this year," she said. "But the reason we need to do that is because the demand has absolutely skyrocketed."

She added that 30 percent more people are asking for food this year than last year because of rising food costs and the recession.

However, Middaugh said that despite the economy, the food bank's monetary donations have kept up with the pace of previous years.

"Monetary donations go a lot farther," she said. "We have really been focusing on that because it is an efficient way to close that gap (of need)."

To help the Eastern Illinois Food Bank on its mission, Comcast presented it with a $2,500 check on Sept. 12. According to a press release from Comcast, this came after several of the company's volunteers and their families aided the food bank.

Richard Koch, a volunteer for the food bank, said he was a regular monetary contributor while he was working. He said after he retired, he started contributing time toward helping the organization.

"That was more exciting, because I could see the impact it was having on the people I helped," he said.

Donna Camp, a panelist at the Hunger Symposium and a volunteer at the Wesley United Methodist food pantry, said the people served at the pantry are just like everyone else.

"It is not that we are the people giving and they are the people receiving, or that they are somehow different than we are," Camp said. "Any person in our community could be in the same situation a month from now, or a year from now."