Peapod by Stop & Shop Gives Groceries to Bklyn Food Pantry

Online grocer Peapod by Stop & Shop, which recently expanded to all five New York City boroughs, has donated $10,000 worth of groceries to the Recovery House of Worship (RHOW), a Brooklyn, N.Y., church whose community services include a weekly food pantry. Aided by local residents, Peapod team members put together 400 bags of nonperishable groceries that will be delivered by RHOW to hundreds of food-insecure people in Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill section.

"Supporting meaningful organizations in the communities in which we live and work is a priority for Peapod," noted Andrea Eldridge, SVP, commercial east markets at Skokie, Ill.-based Peapod.

"The community members we serve rely on the food staples we provide each week through both the hot meals at our soup kitchen and our food pantry service," added Pedro Rodriguez, celebrity chef and RHOW pastor, who revealed that Peapod's grocery donation "will help us serve more than 400 people this holiday season."

The donation comes at a time when, according to the Food Bank for New York City, 80 percent of the metropolis' food pantries have experienced higher demand in the past year, leading to widespread food shortages.

Peapod – like Stop & Shop, an Ahold USA company – serves 24 U.S. markets throughout Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Washington, D.C. and Wisconsin.