Brookshire Grocery Co.’s Spirit of Christmas Food Drive brought in enough food to assist approximately 16,000 families in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi.

In 110 cities and towns BGC partnered with service organizations such as Kiwanis, Lions and Rotary clubs, food pantries and relief agencies, as well as schools, law enforcement groups and fire departments.

BGC donated a coupon for a free baking hen with each box of food distributed, as well as self-closing boxes in which volunteers packed the food.

“This is our 28th year to conduct this food drive and it’s our largest community service project,” said Rick Rayford, President and CEO for BGC. “Many, many employees and volunteers worked hard to make sure people had food at Christmas. Food collected in an area stays in that area, so customers and employees are helping their neighbors who need it.”

Donations of non-perishable items were accepted at participating Brookshire's and Super 1 Foods stores from Nov. 18 through Dec. 22 in most areas. Stores sold scan coupons in November, and the funds were used by partnering service groups to purchase groceries for the food drive. Many stores put together and sold grab-bags of store brand grocery items, which were also donated to the effort.

Volunteers and employees accumulated, sorted, boxed, and distributed the food. Relief agencies screened the households in each community to determine need. Each family received a 20- to 30-pound box of food or more, based on number of family members. The boxes contained items such as canned meats and vegetables, peanut butter, soups, pasta, dried beans, rice, flour and sugar.

Published 12/23/09