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Adventist Community Services and a local drive-thru coffee shop are working together to make sure Lee County residents don’t go hungry this summer.

The project is the brainchild of Urban Buzz Coffee and Juliandra De Jesus, also known as Miss Cape Coral.

This Saturday and Sunday, they’re asking Cape Coral residents to drop off canned goods and non-perishable food items at Urban Buzz, 4413 Del Prado Blvd., S.

There will be a designated drive-thru box and donations will be collected at the end of the day.

The food drive has been in the works for about two months.

De Jesus worked with Adventist Community Services to clear them for the food drive and make sure they needed food.

“With the summer months coming up, we’ll see a surplus of people needing assistance for food,” she said.

De Jesus thought Urban Buzz would be a great fit since its done events like this in the past, like a toy drive around Christmas.

“They set up a box and people came by and dropped off toys for Toys for Tots,” she said. “I thought this would be so perfect for a food drive. It would be a great way for people to get involved in the community and support Urban Buzz, too.”

De Jesus is thrilled to champion this project.

She supports food security and has been volunteering at the Adventist Community Services Pantry of Cape Coral for a number of years.

The cause is close to De Jesus’ heart and she is an advocate for everyone being able to have access to food.

De Jesus doesn’t want to put a number on the amount of food items she hopes to get because Adventist Community Services will use everything they receive.

“They get a shipment every week and they’re usually out by the end of the week,” she said.

De Jesus worked with Alex at Urban Buzz and he was on board from the beginning.

“They do a lot of community work and I thought it would the perfect fit,” she said.

If they can’t make it this weekend, people are also encouraged to drop off food items at the pantry.

Adventist Community Services is at 1509 S.E. 47th Terrace.

Some of the easiest items to bring this weekend will be canned food.

“Canned veggies would be great,” De Jesus said.

Other items needed include rice, cereals, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, beans and legumes.

De Jesus said they give out peanut butter and jelly sandwiches a lot at the pantry.

The food shortage De Jesus expects to see in the summer is due to a number of factors — children are getting out of school and stimulus and refund check monies are running out.

“We are going to see a lot of people we haven’t seen in a while come back,” De Jesus said. “The food pantry serves 2,000 people in Lee County. We’re going to see all of those people come back tenfold.”

The pantry gives out food on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The food people get from the pantry is supposed to last them for two weeks.

“At Adventist, everything has to be organized because we don’t get a lot of donations,” she said.

Information gets collected and people sit outside and wait for groceries.

Volunteers get a big box and fill it with items people would normally buy like vegetables, bread, cereals, meats, milk, juice, etc.

“It’s supposed to last two weeks and help with base meals,” De Jesus said. “They get a big thing of groceries and take it to their car and go home and come back again in two weeks.”

De Jesus is very grateful for the public’s health this weekend.

Hopefully this project will give the pantry enough resources to help all of the Cape Coral residents who need its help.

If you go:

What: Canned Food and Non-Perishable Food Drive

When: June 12-13

Where: Drop-off donations in the designated drive-thru box at Urbann Buzz Coffee, 4413 Del Prado Blvd., S.