Cargill to donate 40K to local food banks
Family owned food producer Cargill, recently took a stand against hunger by donating $40,000 worth of food supplies to six local companies in St. Clair, Mich.
“Nobody should struggle with hunger from lack of food, so meeting that need is something we want to help accomplish,” Keith Klug, plant manager at Cargill’s salt facility in St. Clair said. “One of the best ways Cargill has found to tackle challenges of nutrition and hunger is through donating to local networks and food banks.”
Donated money came directly from Cargill budgets that donations are made from, as well as several other funds.
The Salvation Army, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Port Huron, the St. Clair Council on Aging, the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan and the Algonac Food Pantry are among the non-profit organizations who received a donation from Cargill.
The Salvation Army and the Algonac Food Pantry will use Cargill’s donation to fill their food pantries with non-perishable food items and canned goods.
The Society of St.Vincent de Paul will use the donation to provide for those in need. The primary function of the organization is to aide families who run low on funds or food stamps at the end of the year.
“Cargill’s ultimate goal is nourishing people through agriculture and food. Getting foods from where they are produced to where they are needed. From surplus to places where there are deficits of food,” Mark Klein, spokesperson for Cargill, said.
The St. Clair Council on Aging will use Cargill’s donation to purchase new equipment for meal preparation and delivery to home-bound seniors, as well as food vouchers for seniors with limited incomes.
Also, the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan will fun 24 human-service organizations in St. Clair County.
“The three major focus areas of the donations are to go to nutrition/health, education and environmental stewardship,” Klug said.
Cargill also made a donation of more than $5,000 to St. Clair Middle School.
The school will use the donation to purchase three Smartboard response systems.
St. Clair Middle School teacher, Kim Burkart, said in a press release for PR Newsline, “this donation will provide our teachers the technological resources they need to compliment traditional lessons in our classrooms.”
The Smartboard response systems will allow teachers to instantly track quiz results and lesson comprehension, making lessons more interactive and increasing learning comprehension.
But this isn’t the first time Cargill has donated to local communities.
In December 2010, Cargill made a donation of $10,000 to Algonac Elementary School to the Friday Food Program, which provides low income students with backpacks of ready-to-eat food every Friday. And on October 16, 2009 (World food day) Cargill donated a total of $3.3 million to combat global hunger as a part of their “Nourishing People” challenge. As a result, food banks were able to stock their shelves for the holiday season.