News

Charlotte, NC – (December 23, 2009) – Help from the Charlotte area community continues to pour in since the kick-off of Second Harvest Food Bank’s food drive season. Business and community sponsored drives are helping to pack on pounds - in a healthy way - to help feed those in need in the Charlotte metro region. These and other food drives throughout the year will hopefully help Second Harvest Food Bank meet our goal of distributing 32 million pounds of food and essential grocery products this fiscal year to partner agencies. Second Harvest and donors sponsor food drives throughout the year, but during the holiday season the food bank gets the greatest response from the community. The types of food drives held range from grocery store drives to company-wide food drive competitions to media sponsored events.

Some of the larger food drive totals so far include:

Homeless w/Otis from Kiss 95.1 – 36,366 pounds

Discount Tire Food Drive - 15,924 pounds

Harvest Feast Marathon – 460,000 pounds
Key donors include: Miller Coors - $30,000, PCL Construction Services - $10,000, Anheuser-Busch – $10,000, Smart Chicken – 23,000 pounds, Dole – 12,000 pounds, David Weekly Homes – 5,458 Pounds, and W B Moore Co. of Charlotte – 3,488 pounds. Pet Food donors include Hartz, Nature’s Earth and Pet Products and Del Monte Kibbles & Bits, totaling 10,000 pounds

Street Turkeys – 10,200 pounds, 920 turkeys and $17,526

Monroe Aquatics & Fitness Center – 5,866 pounds

Law Offices of Michael A. DeMayo - 4,170 pounds

“The Metrolina region is the most giving community in the world. We really appreciate the community’s support during this very challenging economic time for so many in the 19 counties we serve”, said Kay Carter, Executive Director of Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina.

With over 390,000 people living at or below poverty in the 19 counties that Second Harvest services, including 170,000 children and seniors, we need the community to continue to support us. The need for food is still growing quicker than what Second Harvest is collecting. Our emergency pantries are continuing to experience significantly large increases in requests for help as families struggle through the winter months with high utility bills and other strains on their income. Please help those in need. If you want to sponsor a food drive, call 704-375-9639 ext. 24 or visit our website at www.secondharvestmetrolina.org for more info.

As part of Feeding America, Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina serves 19 counties in North and South Carolina. In FY2008-2009, Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina distributed over 29 million pounds of food and essential grocery items to approximately 650 hunger feeding agencies including emergency pantries, soup kitchens, senior programs, shelters and low-income daycares.

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