Molly Boll has a hunger to help others and she is hoping her appetite for charity will be contagious.

Boll — a resident of Triology at Redmond Ridge, a 55-and-older active lifestyle community — is leading a charge for Redmond Ridge neighborhoods to gather donations for Hopelink’s End Summer Hunger campaign.

Trilogy, along with seven other Redmond Ridge communities — Reunion at Redmond Ridge Apartments, The Lodge at Redmond Ridge, Redmond Ridge East, Redmond Ridge, Sundance Park, Sundance Glen and Westchester — are uniting to help feed the hungry with a “Neighbors Helping Neighbors Food Drive” Aug. 23.

“It’s for the children and their families — to stock their cupboards before school,” said Boll, the food drive’s coordinator. “The idea is to let these people without jobs know that there are other neighbors who really do care and want to help.”

Hopelink is a Redmond-based social services organization that has a number of food banks on the Eastside, including in Redmond and Kirkland.

With the help of nearly 100 volunteers, the goal of the Neighbors Helping Neighbors Food Drive is to reach out to the 4,000-plus Redmond Ridge residents and collect 30,000 pounds of food and deliver the donations to Hopelink food banks in Carnation, Redmond and Kirkland, Boll said.

On Thursday, Aug. 23, residents can bring their donations to the Redmond Ridge QFC, located at 23475 N.E. Novelty Hill Rd., from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

In addition, food drive volunteers have distributed donation jars to local businesses with the hopes of raising $10,000 for a children’s milk fund for Hopelink.

Bonnie Lambing, who lives in the Reunion at Redmond Ridge Apartments, distributed the donation jars to all of the businesses in the QFC shopping center and said all of the businesses have been “very enthusiastic” about helping to raise money for hungry children.

Hopelink’s End Summer Hunger campaign brings together local businesses, organizations, schools and individuals to help provide low-income families with food for their children during the summer months when school is not in session. During school, many of the children from these families are eligible for free or reduced lunches, but those lunches are not offered during the summer months.

As a way to help the hungry during the summer, Hopelink created its End Summer Hunger campaign, which last year raised $181,439 along with thousands of pounds of food.

To help get the word out about the Redmond Ridge food drive, volunteers will be at the QFC in the coming days, passing out flyers about the food drive event. In addition, QFC will have a store display encouraging shoppers to donate to the cause.

Phyllis Varjian, a Trilogy resident who is helping to promote the food drive by designing the fliers, said the food drive is about connecting the community for a good cause.

“We want to fuel kids up so they have a hunger for education, a hunger for knowledge rather than a hungry stomach,” Varjian said.

Boll, who can barely walk and gets around on her red scooter, or “go-cart” as she calls it, helped organize a Trilogy food drive in 2009 that garnered more than 18,000 pounds of food and $2,700.

This year, she was prompted to do another food drive from her fellow Trilogy neighbors, but this time she wanted to do something even bigger. With the help of other volunteers, Boll reached out to the seven other Redmond Ridge communities to make this year’s food drive bigger and better than ever.

Boll said she can relate with families not having food on the table.

“I grew up, at times, a poor family so I know what it is like not to have food,” said Boll, who grew up in the Northwest. “I can totally relate to families and children without food. One time all I ate was potatoes for a month … just potatoes and water.”

Besides helping the hungry, Boll said she wanted the Redmond Ridge food drive to be a charitable example for other communities.

“With this massive food drive, we can show other communities it can be done,” said Boll. “It’s an amazing feeling to be able to help others.”

For more information, contact Boll at (425) 836-4315 or email mollyboll@comcast.net.