Record number of turkeys donated to Second Harvest

Loblaws and Loblaw Great Food shoppers along with local businesses make the fight against hunger a priority this holiday season

TORONTO , Dec. 22 /CNW/ - Second Harvest's 7th annual Turkey Drive is the most successful to-date! Over the course of two weekends, Loblaws and Loblaw Great Food shoppers donated 5,142 frozen turkeys - the most turkeys ever in the history of the campaign. Both banner stores matched shopper's generosity with a $10,000 donation.

Even with that record contribution, Second Harvest still needed 800 turkeys to fill all the requests from social service agencies. The recession put so much pressure on the social service system that food requests have increased to unprecedented levels.

Thankfully, local businesses stepped up to fill the gap including significant donations from Cargill, Direct Energy, Independent Plumbing & Heating Contracting Association, MI9 Business Intelligence Systems, Sodexo, TD Waterhouse, and Young Presidents' Organization - Toronto Chapter along with many wonderful individual donors.

"For a while there, we were very concerned that we wouldn't have enough turkeys to fill all the orders from our agencies. We were in a tough spot," said Stephen Faul , Executive Director of Second Harvest. "But once the word spread that we were short, these incredibly generous supporters stepped up to fill the gap. We are already hearing from some of our turkey recipients and they are so incredibly grateful to have healthy, holiday meals after such a trying year."

This record number of turkey donations truly reflects the generosity of Torontonians, especially in difficult times. "As a city, we have come together to say that we care about our neighbours in need and refuse to let them go hungry," stated Faul.

    
    Second Harvest still needs financial donations to help with the delivery
    of fresh food throughout December and beyond. If you would like to help
    in providing healthy meals to hungry Torontonians, please call Second
    Harvest at 416-408-2594 or donate online at www.secondharvest.ca.
    

About Loblaw Companies Limited

Loblaw Companies Limited, a subsidiary of George Weston Limited, is Canada's largest food distributor and a leading provider of drugstore, general merchandise and financial products and services. Loblaw is one of the largest private sector employers in Canada . With more than 1,000 corporate and franchised stores from coast to coast, Loblaw and its franchisees employ over 139,000 full-time and part-time employees. Through its portfolio of store formats, Loblaw is committed to providing Canadians with a wide, growing and successful range of products and services to meet the everyday household demands of Canadian consumers. Loblaw is known for the quality, innovation and value of its food offering. It offers Canada's strongest control (private) label program, including the unique President's Choice(R), no name(R) and Joe Fresh Style(R) brands. In addition, the Company makes available to consumers President's Choice Financial(R) services and offers the PC(R) points loyalty program.

About Second Harvest

Second Harvest is a non-profit organization that takes a common-sense approach to hunger. We pick up donated, perishable food, which would otherwise go to waste, and deliver that food to approximately 200 social service agencies in the GTA. Last year, Second Harvest delivered almost 6 million pounds of food to feed those who are hungry in our city. Recognized for our efficiency and impact, independent research group Charity Intelligence named Second Harvest a Recommended Charity in 2009.

For further information: Tonia Krauser, Manager of Communications, Second Harvest, [phone], [email protected], secondharvest.ca