Florence, SC – Perdue Farms delivered a 50-foot refrigerated trailer to Harvest Hope Food Bank in Florence that will be used to store perishable foods destined for citizens in need across the Pee Dee. “This is a tremendous donation for us,” said Denise Holland, CEO of Harvest Hope Food Bank. “We are receiving more and more perishable donations and storage can be a challenge.”
Representatives from Perdue’s Dillon, S.C., facility were on hand for the mountain-sized donation. “At Perdue Farms, we believe that no one should have to go hungry. That’s why our partnership with Feeding America and Harvest Hope Food Bank of Florence in the shared mission to end hunger is so important,” said Randy Brown, Perdue Director of Operations in Dillon. “We’re happy to deliver this refrigerated trailer to help the food bank distribute food to those in need in the Pee Dee Region.”
Perdue Farms employs more than a 1,000 people in South Carolina and this is the first refrigerated truck Perdue has donated in the Palmetto State. Over the past 16 years, Perdue Farms has donated more than 46 million pounds of poultry products nationwide to Feeding America® – the nation’s leading hunger-relief organization. “Perdue is a vital source of help for us,” says Michael Murphy, Harvest Hope Branch Manager. “Since 2002, Perdue has donated nearly 1.8 million pounds of food to Harvest Hope. This equals 1.4 million meals! And getting protein, like their poultry products, to people in need is so very important.”
September is Hunger Action Month. In South Carolina one in five citizens has missed a meal over the past year because they lacked resources to purchase food, according to Holland. Partnerships with businesses like Perdue Farms and individual donations from private citizens go a long way in helping fight hunger in South Carolina. Harvest Hope’s Florence location serves eight counties in the Pee Dee including: Chesterfield, Clarendon, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Lee, Marlboro and Marion.
Harvest Hope is a non-profit organization with food banks in Columbia, Florence and Greenville, SC. For more information please visit www.harvesthope.org.
