Monday, November 2, 2015

NBC Bay Area Teams Up with Safeway for "Help Us End Hunger" Food Drive on Saturday, November 21


SAN JOSE, CA – (November 2,2015) – NBC Bay Area is once again teaming up with Safeway Stores for a one-day food drive on Saturday, November 21, a collaboration of seven food banks serving over 780,000 local residents each month. The “Help Us End Hunger” 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.    

“Despite the recovering economy, thousands of Bay Area residents still rely on their local food banks to put food on their tables each week. Our goal is to create awareness and provide our viewers an easy way to help out,” said Rich Cerussi, NBC Bay Area President and General Manager. “We thank the community for all of their support to make this drive so successful year after year.”

“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 six 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 21 to encourage shoppers to donate food items.

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. Items include pasta and sauce, canned vegetables, soup, and important protein items like peanut butter and canned tuna. Once collected, the food will be delivered to food banks for distribution to needy families. To purchase, shoppers can remove a flyer from the tear pads located display area in each store and take it up to the register. The bags are available for Safeway shoppers to purchase now through December 1

This year, NBC Bay Area and Safeway are again inviting local chefs to participate in a recipe challenge by creating dishes using some of the food items provided in the donation bags. Recipe challenges will take place at various Safeway locations and will be broadcast live on NBC Bay Area.

“Safeway is honored to partner with NBC Bay Area and our local food banks on this community-wide effort,” said Tom Schwilke, President of Safeway Northern California. “Proudly serving Northern California since 1926, assisting people who need a helping hand during the holidays and throughout the year is an important part of our giving programs.”

Last year, the food drive collected more than 144,000 bags at Safeway Stores across the Bay Area, amounting to over 1,600,000 pounds of food for those in need.

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 multicast network, offers a full schedule of America’s most beloved and iconic television series and hit movies. COZI TV can be seen locally on Comcast 186, Verizon 460, and over-the-air on 11.3.

About Safeway
Safeway is one of the most well-recognized grocery retail brands in Northern California with a long-standing reputation for quality and service. Safeway is a division of Albertsons which is one of the largest food and drug retailers in the United States, with both a strong local presence and national scale. Albertsons operates stores across 33 states and the District of Columbia under 18 well-known banners including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s, ACME, Tom Thumb, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Pavilions, Star Market and Carrs.

ABOUT BAY AREA FOOD BANKS
Bay Area Food Banks is a collaboration of seven local food banks serving northern California counties. Collectively they serve 780,000 adults, seniors and children each month through nearly 1,600 food pantries, children’s programs, shelters, soup kitchens, residential programs, and other emergency food providers. Learn more at www.bayareahunger.org.

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MEDIA CONTACTS
NBC Bay Area – Liza Catalan
(408) 432-4302 liza.catalan@nbcuni.com

Safeway- Wendy Gutshall

Alameda County Community Food Bank – Michael Altfest
(510) 636-3663, ext. 330. maltfest@accfb.org