Ocean State Job Lot Donates Much Needed Items
Juice, soup and canned vegetables are among the items donated
Auburn, ME – On February 3, Ocean State Job Lot delivered 19 pallets of much needed nonperishable food items to Good Shepherd Food-Bank. This food will help to provide more than 22,000 meals to those that are hungry. The donation was made possible by gifts from Ocean State Job Lot Customers here in Maine along with a corporate match.
As part of the Company’s annual food drive Ocean State Job Lot customers in seven states donated $918,000 to help feed their hungry neighbors. Funds raised in each store were used to purchase food for the food bank that serves that area insuring that funds raised stay local. In addition to a corporate contribution of $100,000, Ocean State Job Lot donates all warehousing, distribution, shipping and labor for the annual event.
“This donation comes at a critical time for many Mainers,” said Rick Small, executive director of the Food-Bank. “Many of our neighbors are choosing between heating their homes and purchasing food. Donations like this help to alleviate that burden for many of our state’s neediest families, elderly and children.”
David Sarlitto, head of Marketing at Ocean State Job Lot added “Giving back to the communities in which we work and live is a large part of our culture at Ocean State Job Lot. We’re grateful for organizations like Good Shepherd Food Bank that make it possible for us to help our neighbors here in Maine”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (USDA) estimated in November that more than 175,000 Mainers or over 13 percent of the population are food insecure or unable to consistently access adequate amounts of nutritious food necessary for a healthy life.
The Food-Bank distributed 12 million pounds of food last fiscal year. That number is expected to increase to more than 13 million pounds of food this fiscal year. Good Shepherd Food-Bank provides more than one million meals a month to Maine’s hungry.
