By Kate Prahlad
Daily News Record Online
January 8, 2008
Warehouse assistant Thurman Williams stacks canned food at the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank Network on Monday. Wal-Mart donated more than 36,000 pounds of food, or 28,000 meals, to the bank Monday morning.
The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank Network got a belated holiday gift Monday morning.
A tractor-trailer dropped off about 36,000 pounds of donated food to the food bank's Verona headquarters, making it the only bank in the state to receive a portion of the 3 million meals that retailer Wal-Mart is donating nationwide.
"The food arrived in an 18-wheeler, stacked full from front to back," said Ruth Jones, spokeswoman for the food bank. "To put that amount in perspective, that's over 28,000 meals."
Donated food included macaroni and cheese, peanut butter and jelly, oatmeal, corn, beans and potatoes.
"It's very beneficial at this time of year," Jones said. "So we're very excited to get it."
About 129,000 needy individuals and families receive food from the Blue Ridge bank each year. In 2007, the food bank handed out 8.7 million pounds of food, according to a release.
Wal-Mart is donating 3 million meals to food banks across the country through America's Second Harvest, a national hunger-relief organization, and the Wal-Mart Foundation, a nonprofit organization that aims to give back locally, the release said.
"We are pleased to be in a position to [help] ... and hope that this donation will help [food banks] to feed those who are hungry this ... season," said Margaret McKenna, president of the Wal-Mart Foundation, in a press release.
When the new Wal-Mart Supercenter opened in Columbia earlier this fall, it provided job opportunities for more than 200 people...
