Employee Food Drive Under Way
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (June 22, 2009) — Hallmark employees are bringing lunch to work for themselves and others this week, as the company's annual food drive gets under way.
Food drive organizers hope to bring in 75,000 pounds of food for Harvesters - the Community Food Network and the Second Harvest food network. It's an aggressive goal, according to volunteer project leader Wendy Woolford, but achievable – and very much needed.
"With the state of the economy, the need this year is greater than ever," notes Woolford, a retail leasing manager for Hallmark. "Harvesters estimates that the need for 2009 is 10 million more pounds of food than last year to meet anticipated demand.
"Food pantries and agencies report a 40 percent increase in people relying on food assistance, and an 80 percent increase in those seeking food assistance for the first time," she says.
Each pound of food donated provides 1.3 meals, Woolford adds, "So if we meet our goal, Hallmark employees will have provided 97,500 meals to hungry families in our communities."
In addition, the Hallmark Corporate Foundation will contribute to Harvesters 10 cents for every pound of food donated.
For the first time this year, the food drive is extending beyond Hallmark's Kansas City headquarters as employees in the company's manufacturing and distribution facilities in Lawrence, Topeka and Leavenworth, Kan., and Liberty, Mo., are able to participate.
The 2009 food drive launched June 19 and continues through the end of the month.