This last fall, Don Murphy, our Director of Produce and Floral, heard about a wonderful organization: FirstFruits of Washington.
FirstFruits is an apple grower with a charitable mission—to provide
1 million apples to local food banks.
Grocery Outlet and its customers are partnering with FirstFruits to donate thousands of pounds of apples to needy families through its “Take a Bite Out of Hunger” campaign. The campaign began in October and will run through January 31.
We made our first donation of 19,600 pounds of apples to
Oregon Food Bank in Portland, OR on Wednesday, January 12th, and our second donation for the same amount to the
FISH Food Bank of Pierce County, Seattle, WA on Thursday, January 13th. That’s 39,200 pounds of apples, or 107,000 apples in total! I was on site helping for both of these donations and it was pretty incredible seeing all the fresh fruit going to local hungry people in the middle of a desperate winter.
Don Murphy (Director of Produce), Eric Lindberg (Co-CEO) and Mike Moran (Oregon Food Bank)
Don says, “Our goal is to donate more than 50,000 pounds of apples to local food banks between now and February. This donation will help many and is perfect timing to provide nutritious food to those in need after the holiday season when less emphasis is placed on replenishing food bank reserves.”
The Oregon Food Bank chimes in, “High unemployment due to the current economic recession resulted in 240,000 people per month eating meals from an emergency food box last year, up from 200,000 the previous year. Of those,
33 percent are children. OFB Network agencies continue to see new faces ... people who never thought they would need emergency food.”
Demand is higher than ever, but we’re stepping in to help, and you can too! During the course of the promotion, you can purchase bagged apples and help us earn even more apples for donations to local food banks! We’re running the promotion through January and will make additional donations in February. The donations will provide fresh apples to more local food banks and the member programs they support.
Just find the logo below on any package of apples. For every 5 lb bag you buy, we’ll donate 2 apples. For any 3 lb bag of apples, we’ll donate 1 apple. Let’s help ease the sting of hunger and provide healthy apples for local families together!
