Marathon Petroleum raised $80,000 for the Kenai Peninsula Food Bank during a two-day fishing fundraiser the two organizations hosted in August.

According to a Thursday press release from the food bank, “Catching for a Cause” was a collaboration between themselves and Marathon, who are described as a “key sponsor” of the food bank, providing turkeys during the holidays and supporting the annual Soup Supper Fundraiser.

Catching for a Cause, which was held Aug. 22 and 23, was also sponsored by “industry contractors who work with the refinery,” the release says. Participants spent two days networking and fishing, first at Big River Lakes across Cook Inlet and then on the Kenai River.

The additional funding, the release says, “couldn’t have come at a better time.”

The food bank has regularly described increased demand since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We went from averaging 900,000 pounds of food distributed annually to over 2.2 million,” Executive Director Greg Meyer says in the release. “We are also feeding two to three times the number of folks in our soup kitchen.”

That increased demand, compounded by increased costs of food and supplies have strained the food bank’s ability to provide for the community, Meyer says in the release. The donation will allow for the food bank to purchase food for the remaining three months of the year.

“We’re so grateful to the Kenai Peninsula Food Bank and the incredibly important work they do for this community,” says Bruce Jackman, general manager of Marathon’s Kenai refinery, in the release. “This fundraiser was a great opportunity to support our neighbors in need, and it was a huge hit with our guests from many southern states, who had the chance to enjoy our great state’s beauty while doing good for so many people.”

For more information about the Kenai Peninsula Food Bank, find “Kenai Peninsula Food Bank” on Facebook or visit kpfoodbank.org.

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.

Jon Kruger hands an award for Trophy Catch of the Day to a participant of Catching for a Cause at the Cannery Lodge in Kenai, Alaska. (Photo courtesy Josiah Martin/Kenai Peninsula Food Bank)

A participant of Catching for a Cause holds aloft a salmon. (Photo courtesy Josiah Martin/Kenai Peninsula Food Bank)