Detroit Mayor Dave Bing Visits Sodexo's 'Feeding Our Future®' Program at Detroit Institute of Arts

DETROIT, Aug. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- While attending today's Woodward Light Rail press conference along with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and Governor Jennifer Granholm at Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), Mayor Dave Bing went the extra mile to acknowledge the efforts of Sodexo and DIA to fight hunger. Executive Chef Larry Duren, along with other Sodexo employees and DIA volunteers, continue to donate their time to prepare and package 18,500 summer lunches for area school children who rely on free and reduced-price meals during the academic year. The program, which runs through August 29, is made possible by a $20,000 Feeding Our Future® grant from the Sodexo Foundation.

"With one in four children living in Michigan households that lack the necessary funds to put food on the table, Mayor Bing recognizes that convenient transportation is but one of the city's challenges," said Steve Mazzenga, general manager at Sodexo, the official foodservice provider for DIA. "We are grateful for the Mayor's recognition of the hunger relief efforts currently underway by Sodexo, Detroit Institute of Arts and Gleaners Community Food Bank."

Every day, an estimated 17 million U.S. children rely on school breakfast and lunch programs as their only guaranteed meals. When schools shut down for the summer, federal meal programs feed only about three million, leaving 13 million children at risk for hunger. To help bridge this gap, the Sodexo Foundation, the independent charitable organization of Sodexo, Inc., has provided free lunches to children through its summer feeding program, Feeding Our Future, since 1997.  The Sodexo Foundation provides grants to local Sodexo accounts to purchase food for the meals and local Sodexo employees prepare the meals each day.

In addition to Detroit, Feeding Our Future will be providing more than 300,000 summer lunches in 19 other cities in the United States: Atlanta, Ga., Boston, Mass., Buffalo, N.Y., Camden, N.J., Chattanooga, Tenn., Chicago, Ill.,  Denver, Colo., Fort Worth, Texas, Honolulu, Hawaii, Houston, Texas, Los Angeles, Calif.,  Miami, Fla., New York, N.Y., Oklahoma City, Okla., San Jose, Calif., St. Cloud, Minn., St. Louis, Mo., Terre Haute, Ind. and Washington, D.C.  

Feeding Our Future is a program of the Sodexo Foundation, an independent charitable organization supporting hunger-related initiatives that focus on eliminating the root causes of hunger in the U.S. Sodexo pays all administrative costs of the Foundation to ensure that all money raised is directed to those in need.

For more details, please visit www.helpstophunger.org.

The Detroit Institute of Arts

The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), one of the premier art museums in the United States, is home to more than 60,000 works that comprise a multicultural survey of human creativity from ancient times through the 21st century. From the first van Gogh painting to enter a U.S. museum (Self Portrait, 1887), to Diego Rivera's world-renowned Detroit Industry murals (1932–33), the DIA's collection is known for its quality, range, and depth. Programs are made possible with support from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and the City of Detroit.

Gleaners Community Food Bank

For more than 32 years, Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan (Gleaners) has been nourishing the community by feeding hungry people.  In 2009 Gleaners distributed more than 30 million pounds of emergency food to over 430 partner soup kitchens, shelters and pantries in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston and Monroe counties.  Of every dollar donated, Gleaners uses 96 cents for food and food programs. One dollar provides three meals for a hungry neighbor.  Learn more at www.gcfb.org.

Sodexo, Inc.

Sodexo, Inc. (www.sodexoUSA.com), leading Quality of Daily Life Solutions company in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, delivers On Site Service Solutions in Corporate, Education, Health Care, Government, and Remote Site segments, as well as Motivation Solutions such as Esteem Pass. Sodexo, Inc., headquartered in Gaithersburg, Md., funds all administrative costs for the Sodexo Foundation (www.SodexoFoundation.org), an independent charitable organization that, since its founding in 1999, has made more than $12 million in grants to fight hunger in America. Visit the corporate blog at blogs.sodexousa.com. 

SOURCE Sodexo, Inc.