NBC Bay Area and Telemundo 48 will team up with Safeway's "Feed the Need" food drive on Saturday, Nov. 17, kicking off a month-long effort to fight hunger in the Bay Area.
This year’s food drive includes the collaboration of seven local food banks that serve more than 840,000 local residents each month. The "Feed the Need" food drive will take place at 170 Safeway locations throughout the Bay Area through Dec. 25.
"Despite the wealth in Silicon Valley, the reality is that more people rely on their local food banks than ever before," said Stacy Owen, NBC Bay Area and Telemundo 48 President and General Manager. "Our goal is to create awareness and provide our viewers an easy way to help out. This year we’re excited to have Telemundo 48 join the effort and help spread the word to the Hispanic community."
"Safeway is excited to partner with NBC Bay Area, Telemundo 48, and local food banks to help feed families in need this holiday season. We’re proud to be one of the largest contributors to food banks and hunger-relief programs in the neighborhoods we serve. This important collaborative effort supports our food bank partners across the Bay Area," said Brad Street, Division President of Safeway Northern California.
In addition to helping get the word out to the community, NBC Bay Area and Telemundo 48 will be enlisting support from hundreds of volunteers – including NBC Bay Area and Telemundo 48 anchors & reporters helping at their own neighborhood Safeway stores on Saturday, Nov. 17 to encourage shoppers to donate.
On "Feed the Need" day and through Dec. 25, anyone can visit one of the participating Safeway stores to donate $1, $5 or $10 that will go toward a bag of food items that will be donated to the local food banks. At each store, shoppers can remove a flyer from the tear pads located at the register and make a donation. Each bag of food will contain pasta and sauce, canned vegetables, soup, and important protein items like peanut butter and canned chicken breast. Once collected, the food will be delivered to food banks for distribution to families in need.
"As we and other Bay Area food banks continue to meet the existing need for food assistance in our communities, we are thankful that NBC Bay Area and Safeway have once again chosen to help out the community in this way" said Paul Ash, the Executive Director of the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank. "We are all working harder than ever to provide our neighbors in need with nutritious meals for the holidays and beyond, so donations of food and funds this time of year are critical. The generous work by NBC Bay Area and Safeway has been a tremendous help to us all in years past, and will be a tremendous help this year too."
Check out photos of reporters, anchors, volunteers and viewers that contrbuted to this year's "Feed the Need" Food Drive on 11/117: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/set=a.1907477042641139&type=1&l=e856b51802
Last year, the food drive collected more than 360,000 bags across the Bay Area, nearly tripling the amount from the previous year and amounting to more than than 3.5 million pounds of food for those in need. NBC Bay Area and Telemundo 48 news teams will volunteer at their neighborhood Safeway stores on Saturday, Nov. 17. Please see the list below:
7 to 9 a.m., Safeway on 840 East Dunne Ave., Morgan Hill
Marcus Washington, Robert Handa and Ian Cull
9:30 to 11:30 a.m., Safeway 6790 Bernal Ave., Pleasanton
Jessica Aguirre
11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Safeway 3970 Rivermark Plaza, Santa Clara
Vianey Arana, Scott McGrew, Kira Klapper, Chris Chmura, Anoushah Rasta and Mike Inouye
10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Los Altos Safeway 160 1st Street, Los Altos
Raj Mathai, Janelle Wang, Vicky Nguyen and Bigad Shaban
11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Safeway 850 Woodside Road, Redwood City
Telemundo 48 News Team
12 to 2 p.m.
Safeway 2890 East Capitol Ave, San Jose
Damian Trujillo and Telemundo 48 News Team
10 a.m. to 12 noon
Safeway 4495 First Street, Livermore
Bob Redell and Kari Hall
11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Safeway 1489 Bird Ave, San Jose
Garvin Thomas, Kris Sanchez and Elizabeth Wagner
11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Safeway 200 Alamo Plaza, Alamo
Jeff Ranieri and Pete Suratos
2 to 4 p.m.
Safeway 110 Strawberry Village, Mill Valley
Terry McSweeney and Jean Elle
11a.m. to 1 p.m.
Safeway 5051 Business Center Drive, Fairfield
Jodie Hernandez and Cheryl Hurd
10 a.m. to 12 noon
Safeway 470 Santa Cruz Ave, Los Gatos
Marianne Favro
Special thanks to our volunteers:
Junior League of San Jose
Girl Scouts of the Bay Area
Kiwanis Clubs
Alameda County 4-H
Second Harvest Food Banks
Contra Costa and Solano Food Banks
Contra Costa & Solano Community Food Bank
Alameda County Community Food Bank