Kicking off a month-long local effort
to fight hunger, NBC Bay Area is once again partnering with Safeway Stores for
a one-day food drive on Saturday, November 23 to benefit Bay Area Food
Banks, a collaboration of six food banks serving over 725,000 local residents
each month. The “Every Bag Counts” food drive will take place at 156 Safeway
locations throughout the Bay Area making it easy for community members to
participate and help feed their neighbors in need.
“Our goal is to create awareness about
hunger in the Bay Area and provide our viewers an easy way to help out,” said
Rich Cerussi, NBC Bay Area President and General Manager. “Last year we more than doubled our goal and collected over
50,000 bags in one day, we can’t wait to see what our volunteers and donors
accomplish this year. We thank the community for all of their support to make
this drive so successful.”
“We thank NBC Bay Area and Safeway for bringing
attention to the severity of local hunger and for creating a simple way for
anyone in our community to help a family in need,” said Kathy Jackson, Second
Harvest Food Bank CEO. “Bay Area Food Banks are feeding people in every
neighborhood and through this drive you can donate to make a difference in the
lives of people where you live.”
For the last four years, NBC Bay Area
has partnered with Safeway to help stock the shelves of local food banks. In
addition to providing on air promotion, the station will be enlisting hundreds
of volunteers – including NBC Bay Area anchors and reporters helping at their own
neighborhood Safeway Stores – on Saturday, November 23 to encourage shoppers to
donate food items. Individuals interested in volunteering to collect food at a
local Safeway on November 23, can visit www.bayareaproud.com or contact their
local food bank to register.
To make the donation process easier, a
specially produced shopping bag filled with items that food banks need the most
will be available for $10 at all local Safeway stores. These bags include pasta
and sauce, canned vegetables and important protein items like peanut butter and
canned tuna. Once collected, the bags will be delivered to food banks. The bags
will be available for purchase from November 6 through December 25.
“Safeway is proud to be partnering
with our area food banks on this community-wide collection effort,” said Karl
Schroeder, President of Safeway Northern California. “Assisting people who need a helping hand
during the holidays and throughout the year is an important part of Safeway’s
giving programs.”
Last year, the food drive collected more
than 100,000 bags of food at Bay Area locations, more than doubling the
previous year’s collection.
ABOUT
NBC BAY AREA
Owned by NBC Universal, NBC Bay
Area/KNTV is the Bay Area’s investigative station located in the heart of
Silicon Valley. The station is committed
to providing continuous, in-depth news and journalism with unique personalities.
Along with carrying NBC’s award-winning daytime, prime-time and late night
programming, NBC Bay Area produces more than 32 hours of news programming each
week, including several, weekly news franchises: The Interview with Raj Mathai,
Class Action with Jessica Aguirre, and Reality Check with Sam Brock. COZI TV,
the station’s digital network, offers a full schedule of America’s most beloved
and iconic television series, hit movies and original programming. COZI TV can
be seen locally on Comcast 186, Verizon 460, and over-the-air on 11.3.
About
Safeway
Safeway Inc.
is a Fortune 100 company and one of the largest food and drug retailers in North America , based on sales. The company operates 1,415
stores in the United States and had annual sales
of $44.2 billion in 2012. The company's common stock is traded on the
New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SWY.
About
Bay Area Food Banks:
Bay Area Food Banks is a
collaboration of eight
local food banks that serve more than 600,000 people in 11
northern California counties each month. Through 1,560 food pantries,
children's programs, shelters, soup kitchens, residential programs, and other
emergency food providers, Bay Area Food Banks distributes 142 million pounds of
food each year. With respect and compassion, the Food Banks serve anyone in
need.
###
MEDIA
CONTACTS
NBC
Bay Area – Liza Catalan
Safeway- Wendy Gutshall
Alameda
County Community Food Bank – Michael Altfest
Food Bank of
Contra Costa and Solano – Lisa Sherrill
Redwood
Empire Food Bank (Sonoma
County
San Francisco Food Bank & Marin Food Bank – Blain Johnson
Second
Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties
(408) 858-9208 ckerk@shfb.org
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