Publix Charities Supports Food Rescue & Hunger Reduction in Upstate SC
GREENVILLE, SC (Sept. 14, 2021)— Loaves & Fishes received a $5,000 grant from Publix Super Markets Charities to support their Food Donation Hub program. The program was launched in 2019 to provide a source for high-quality, healthy product to food-insecure residents in currently under-served communities. It serves as an enhancement to Loaves & Fishes’ Daily Food Rescue, through which truck drivers and volunteers pick up surplus food from local grocery stores, restaurants, food distribution centers and caterers that would otherwise be thrown away and deliver that food free of charge to 105 partner agencies. These agencies serve individuals experiencing food insecurity and a variety of other hardships.
Each Food Donation Hub serves 3-5 member agencies, such as church pantries and other small organizations that lack the onsite refrigeration capacity to receive regular Daily Food Rescue donations of perishable product to distribute to their neighbors in need. Each hub consists of a cooler placed in a central location identified by a Food Hub Task Force. The hubs serve as a safe storage place for fresh produce, meat and dairy products accessible to the hubs’ member agencies. Loaves & Fishes refrigerated trucks drop perishable product to hubs 7 times a week. These food hubs and other daily food deliveries function as a simple system for addressing the issues of food insecurity and food waste in Greenville County.
The $5,000 granted from Publix Super Markets Charities will be used to fund fuel for their fleet of refrigerated trucks as well as food sourcing efforts and delivery to existing hubs.
ABOUT: Loaves & Fishes is a 501(c)3 nonprofit established in 1991 to reduce hunger in Greenville County by rescuing unspoiled, surplus food before it is wasted. We believe that common sense solutions to reducing hunger exist and thanks to our many partnering grocery stores and farms, eateries, and community gardens we can eliminate the costly, logistical challenge of transporting food safely from place to place. The simple connection between surplus food and people experiencing food insecurity is a Loaves & Fishes truck. Our drivers and volunteers rescue food and deliver it daily free of charge to any of our 105 partner agencies. Our goal is to eliminate food insecurity among neighbors by working hard to collect good food before it goes to waste.
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