Two Northeast Retailers Think Charity for Turkey Time

ELIZABETH, N.J. and SCARBOROUGH, Maine -- ShopRite and Hannaford Supermarkets have launched seasonal initiatives to help out the needy during The Thanksgiving holiday.

Through ShopRite's year-round hunger-fighting initiative, ShopRite Partners In Caring, a donation of 60,000 pounds of turkey will be made to food banks and other hunger-fighting charities in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, and Pennsylvania.

ShopRite trucks will make the first delivery of turkeys to the Community Food Bank of New Jersey in Hillside on Thursday, Nov. 8, to make sure all those in need in the surrounding area have the chance to eat turkey at Thanksgiving.

"In our year-round fight against hunger we recognize the 'season of giving' as a critical period for us to raise awareness and funds for those in need," said ShopRite Partners In Caring spokeswoman Karen Meleta. "During the holidays, the difficulties that families face are more apparent."

ShopRite supermarkets are members of Wakefern Food Corp., a retailer-owned cooperative with stores throughout New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Delaware. The banner serves over 4 million customers each week.

Meanwhile, Hannaford Supermarkets has rolled out its fourth annual "Fund a Feast" program, which gives shoppers in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York the opportunity to provide meals for people in their communities who could use some help during the holidays by buying a bag of food for $10. The program runs through Dec. 22. All donated bags are picked up by local food pantries and soup kitchens, which distribute the items to area households.

Between Oct. 28 and Nov. 24, the preassembled bags contain all of the ingredients for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, including roasted mashed potatoes, turkey stuffing mix, turkey gravy, corn, buttermilk biscuit mix, cranberry sauce, fruit cocktail, graham cracker pie crust, chocolate pudding, and Dream Whip. Between Nov. 25 and Dec. 22, high-protein items such as peanut butter and tuna fish, in addition to staples including macaroni and cheese, pasta, spaghetti sauce, beef stew, mixed vegetables, soup, instant rice, and fruit cocktail, will be in each bag. The items included in the bags were chosen based on discussions with participating hunger-relief agencies.

"We were hearing from many food pantries that they are experiencing increasing demand, and they were worried that they would be unable to provide enough food to families during the holiday season," explained Hannaford marketing specialist Evan Harding in a statement. "Hannaford is committed to supporting people in our community who count on us."

"Fund a Feast" began in 2004 in a single Hannaford Supermarket. This year all of the more than 161 Hannaford Supermarkets will be taking part in the program.


X
This ad will auto-close in 10 seconds