Lehigh Valley supermarkets run food drives to assist food banks

Sep 13, 2009 (The Morning Call - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- WMK | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- You may have noticed there's a new way to give at some local supermarkets.

Weis Markets kicked off a food drive that allows you to buy, for about $7, a variety of pre-packaged staples -- cereal, pasta, sauce, tuna, canned fruits and vegetables in a brown paper bag -- right off the shelf to be given to a local food bank after you pay for it at the register.

The Fight Hunger Food Drive, which runs through the month, puts the suggested donations in prominent shelf space -- the end-of-aisle cap usually reserved for the best deals and hottest items.

Supermarket food drives are nothing new, and Lehigh Valley groceries donate food by the ton and raise thousands of dollars for food banks each year. Traditionally, customers are asked to buy individual items off the shelf and put them in large canisters on their way out of the store or make monetary donations at the register.

The brown bag filled with pre-selected staples puts a new twist on giving during September, which is designated Hunger Action Month by the national nonprofit group Feeding America.

"The pre-filled bag was designed to make it super-easy for the customer to make a donation," said Karen Buch, a dietitian and director of lifestyle initiatives for Weis Markets. "The shopper will see these bags and think they would buy all of those things to feed their family, and they can relate to that. And of course, it makes it easy. We wanted to make it simple for our customers to take part."

Supermarkets are an ideal place to raise awareness about hunger, because people are thinking about feeding their own families and are more likely to be concerned about neighbors going hungry, said Ann McManus, program director of Second Harvest Food Bank of Lehigh Valley and Northeast Pennsylvania.

The Allentown agency provides food to about 60,000 people in a six-county area each month, McManus said. Donations have been steady despite the recession, but demand for food has gone up sharply, she said.

McManus noticed the Weis campaign while shopping last weekend and said she was intrigued by the idea and the prominent display of the pre-filled bags.

"Any time anyone does something to raise the awareness that people are hungry in their neighborhood is a good thing," McManus said.

Other Lehigh Valley supermarkets have drives to fight hunger this month, as well.

Giant Food Stores has a Bag Hunger campaign running through Sept. 19 that involves asking customers to donate $1 to local food banks while checking out. A similar drive last year raised $355,000, including more than $38,000 in the Lehigh Valley. The company this year hopes to raise $500,000 for food banks in its four-state area, said Tracy Pawelski, spokeswoman for the chain based in Carlisle, Cumberland County.

Giant donated $1.7 million worth of day-old bakery goods to food banks last year, including $140,000 worth of such items in the Lehigh Valley, Pawelski said.

Redner's Warehouse Markets has a similar Bag Hunger campaign that runs through Oct. 3. Shoppers are being asked to donate $1, and the proceeds will be given to area food banks, company spokesman Eric White said.

Wegmans will run its Check Out Hunger campaign, during which shoppers are asked to donate to food banks while checking out, from Oct. 25 to Dec. 19, company spokeswoman Jo Natale said.

Every day, Wegmans donates bakery, produce and dairy products to local food pantries. In 2008, the Allentown Wegmans donated nearly 80,000 pounds of food to five local agencies, including the Lehigh County Conference of Churches, Natale said. Overall, the Rochester, N.Y.-based company donates 16 million pounds of food to food banks each year, and last year the company raised $2 million for food banks, including $35,000 for Second Harvest Food Bank, Natale said.

Weis, based in Sunbury, Northumberland County, last year donated $200,000 to food banks in five states and collected 50,000 pounds of food during a September food drive it hopes to surpass this year, Buch said. In addition to the bags, customers can buy food vouchers at the cash register to be donated to food banks.

spencer.soper@mcall.com 610-820-6694

To see more of The Morning Call, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.mcall.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email
tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax
to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave.,
Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

More News:   Market Updates | Stock Alerts | All Trading News | Stock Index