850 Families to Benefit from Stop & Shop's Thanksgiving Meals

QUINCY, Mass., Nov. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Today The Greater Boston Food Bank, Rhode Island Community Food Bank, and The Open Door Food Pantry received an unexpected donation from the Stop & Shop Supermarket Company, complete turkey dinners for more than 850 families. The donation is in addition to Stop & Shop's annual Turkey Express program which delivered 20,000 turkeys, nearly 280,000 pounds, to local hunger relief organizations this month.

"Today more than ever families are forced to make tough decisions between paying for food or paying their gas bill," said Faith Weiner, senior director of public affairs for Stop & Shop. "This week we want to make it an easy choice by providing a free, ready to eat Thanksgiving dinner."

Each turkey dinner serves six to eight people and includes a fully cooked 10-12 pound turkey with all the fixings, including mashed potatoes, stuffing, butternut squash, gravy and cranberry relish. Additional information about each donation is below:

• The Greater Boston Food Bank -- The food bank will distribute more than 250 turkey dinners at the American Red Cross Food Pantry on Massachusetts Avenue, Wednesday, November 25. The donation supports the food bank's goal of distributing 38,000 turkeys to Boston families this Thanksgiving. In total, Stop & Shop has donated more than 7,000 turkeys to the food bank this November.

• Rhode Island Community Food Bank -- The food bank will distribute 500 turkey dinners through St. Teresa's Food Pantry, Providence, R.I. The pantry is one of the food bank's largest member agency food pantries serving 1,000 households a month. The donation supports the food bank's goal of collecting more than 250,000 pounds of food before the end of December. To date, Stop & Shop has donated more than 19,000 pounds to the food bank's Holiday Food Drive.

• The Open Door Food Pantry -- The pantry will distribute 100 turkey dinners to families in Gloucester, Essex, Rockport, Manchester, and Ipswich who are registered in the pantry's Holiday Meal Basket program. The donation supports the pantry's goal of serving 700 families this Thanksgiving. With the donation, the pantry expects to exceed its Thanksgiving goal and provide meals for 800 families.

In addition to its annual Turkey Express donation, Stop & Shop recently awarded a $1.5 million, three year grant to 17 local Feeding America food banks to support hunger relief efforts. The company also encourages customer involvement through its annual Food for Friends program.

Through in-store donations and a corporate matching program, Stop & Shop hopes to raise an additional $1 million dollars for local hunger relief organizations through Food for Friends. The company will match the first $500 raised by each store. Food for Friends ends Dec. 3.

For more information regarding Stop & Shop's hunger relief efforts, visit www.stopandshop.com.

About the Stop & Shop Supermarket Company

The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company, headquartered in Quincy, Mass., employs more than 59,000 associates and operates stores throughout Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, and New Jersey. The company is a member of the US Green Building Council and has been awarded LEED (EB) certifications for 50 of its existing stores. Stop & Shop has been recognized by the EPA for the superior energy management of its stores and is also a member of the EPA's Smart Way program.

SOURCE Stop & Shop Supermarket Company

Back to top

RELATED LINKS
http://www.stopandshop.com