Annual Hallmark food drive for Harvesters
sets 50,000-pound goal

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (July 8, 2008) — Employees at Hallmark’s Kansas City headquarters will be bringing more than their own lunches to work July 11-22 as the company’s annual food drive for Harvesters – The Community Food Network, gets under way.

Food drive organizers hope to bring in 50,000 pounds of food – about 11 pounds per employee in the company’s headquarters and Crown Center subsidiary.  It’s an aggressive goal, according to volunteer project leader Wendy Woolford, but achievable. 

“Our food drive has grown from 5,500 pounds in 2004, to an amazing 46,600 pounds last year,” says Woolford, a Hallmark retail leasing manager. “The need this year is greater than ever – with the rising cost of gas and groceries, family budgets are really being stretched, and Harvesters has been hard pressed to keep up with the demand.” 

The Hallmark food drive this year focuses on nutritious non-perishables for the metropolitan area’s more than 100,000 children in Harvesters’ service area who are eligible for free school meals.  “During the summer months, these children no longer have access to meals at school, so the need for nutritious, kid-friendly foods during the summer is very high,” says Woolford.  

Food drive activities will include:

• A “CANstruction” contest, in which teams of employees create child-themed sculptures – to draw attention to the issue of child hunger – from cans of tuna, fruits and vegetables. Sculptures will be assembled in the employee cafeteria and employees will vote for their favorites based on design quality, color coordination and best overall use of cans. All cans will be donated to the food drive at the end of the contest.
• Grocery bags will be distributed Tuesday, July 15, for employees to return filled with non-perishable food items in collection barrels located at all employee entrances.
• A “drive through drop off” from 6 to 9 a.m. Thursday, July 17, will make it easy for employees to bring cases of canned goods on their way into work. 

In addition, Hallmark will contribute to Harvesters 10 cents for every pound of food donated. 

The food drive is one of several Kansas City-area employee volunteer events organized by Hallmark’s volunteer office throughout the year.

Harvesters is Kansas City’s food bank. Covering a 13-county metropolitan area, Harvesters provides food and related household products to more than 550 not-for-profit agencies including emergency food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, children’s homes, homes for the mentally disabled and shelters for battered persons. Founded in 1979, Harvesters is a certified member of America’s Second Harvest, a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks serving all 50 states.  For more information, visit www.harvesters.org.