Foodshare reached a new milestone last year. “Over 12 million pounds of food has been received by the regional food bank in 2008,” said Foodshare President & CEO Gloria McAdam. “This exceeds the 11.3 million pounds that were donated during 2007.”
The vast majority of this food, approximately 75 to 80 percent each year, comes directly from the food industry.
“The actual 12 millionth pound donor was Shaw’s Supermarkets,” McAdam said in a news release. “As of Christmas week, Shaw’s had given Foodshare 665,571 pounds of food in 2008.”
Included in this total was 107,269 pounds for the new “Meat the Need” program, which makes frozen meat available for people in need. Participating Shaw’s stores included those in Bristol, Canton, East Hartford, Enfield, Manchester, Newington, Vernon, and West Hartford.
“Shaw’s has a proud history of being an active and genuinely helpful community neighbor,” says Mike Murzda of Shaw’s in Newington. “We’re delighted to have played an important role in helping Foodshare reach this milestone, especially in these difficult economic times.”
The Connecticut Credit Union Charitable Foundation announced that more than $38,000 was raised in its annual raffle to help the needy of Connecticut. Fifty percent of the proceeds will go to the Connecticut Food Bank and Hartford FoodShare and the other 50 percent will go to Operation Fuel, an organization that assists Connecticut families with their fuel and electric bills.
This past year, the William Raveis Charitable Fund Inc. pledged $750,000 to the University of Connecticut Health Center, which established the William Raveis ACS Navigator Care Program. With the assistance of trained volunteers and cancer survivors, this innovative program helps newly diagnosed breast cancer patients navigate through diagnosis and treatment. The program will expand in the near future to include outreach to patients with other types of cancer as well.
“Raveis’ support is so important because it allows us to expand the scope of our program and help more of our patients,” says Dr. Carolyn D. Runowicz, director of the cancer center at UConn.
“We’ve seen how useful it has been for patients with breast cancer and recognize the need to provide this service for all of our patients,” Runowicz said. “ This program is a real resource for our patients and helps to empower them to become more active partners in their treatment and recovery.”
Howley Bread Group Ltd. announces that nine of its Panera Bread bakery-cafes in Connecticut recently donated $18,613 to its Operation Dough-Nation partner, Connecticut Children’s Medical Center (CCMC) in Hartford. This latest donation by the nine to CCMC brings the total donation to more than $94,000 contributed during the past three years.