Stuff A Bus Season Is Back Again! hear the interview with City Link & Peoria Friendship House here.
Want to help us reach our goal of collecting 10 tons of food for the Peoria Friendship House of Christian Service? Sign up for a volunteer time slot and be part of the effort! Volunteers will hand out shopping lists at Kroger and encourage shoppers to donate as we work together to stuff the bus! For more information, sign up here: https://bit.ly/46qUsXD
The 38th Annual Stuff-A-Bus food drive to benefit the Peoria Friendship House of Christian Service officially begins on Friday, October 10, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. with a press conference at the Kroger store location at 9219 N. Lindbergh Drive in Peoria. Representatives from CityLink, the Peoria Friendship House and Kroger will be on hand to kick off the annual food drive. This year, Stuff-A-Bus plans to collect 10 tons of food onto the re-imagined ’vintage’ CityLink bus.
To mark the kickoff this year, there will be a live broadcast at the Kroger on Lindbergh from Cumulus Radio station Z 92.3 from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., encouraging listeners to stop by the kickoff event and donate to Stuff-A-Bus. Additionally, mascots from the Peoria Rivermen and Mustang hockey teams and Peoria Chiefs baseball team will be present, providing some extra enthusiasm to the event.
For the past 38 years, CityLink has hosted the Stuff-A-Bus food drive to help eliminate hunger in Peoria. With a long partnership with Kroger to collect enough food to stuff a CityLink bus, the donations collected during the annual food drive benefit the food pantry at the Peoria Friendship House of Christian Service. In a year, the Peoria Friendship House food pantry provides an average of 150,000 meals to those dealing with hunger in Peoria.
All Peoria Kroger stores are participating in this year’s Stuff-a-Bus campaign, which includes the stores in Peoria located at 9219 Lindbergh Dr.; and 801 W. Lake Ave. The Kroger store in East Peoria, located at 201 S. Main St. is also participating. New this year is the Kroger store in Pekin, located at 1607 Broadway St. The participating Kroger stores will have donation displays available that include non-perishable food items that are needed at the Peoria Friendship House food pantry. Shoppers can simply purchase items from the displays or purchase food off the shelves and place the donations in the bins located at the front of the stores.
To mark the kickoff this year, there will be a live broadcast at the Kroger on Lindbergh from Cumulus Radio station Z 92.3 from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., encouraging listeners to stop by the kickoff event and donate to Stuff-A-Bus. Additionally, mascots from the Peoria Rivermen and Mustang hockey teams and Peoria Chiefs baseball team will be present, providing some extra enthusiasm to the event.
