Southern States Launches Holiday Food Drive
With the holiday season approaching, Southern States Cooperative is joining with local food banks to promote the first annual Southern States Holiday Food Drive.
“Farmers in the United States lead the world in producing quality meats, grains, fruits and vegetables,” said Southern States President and CEO Tom Scribner. “Essentially, American farmers feed the world, so it’s just not right for families right here in the U.S. to go hungry, especially at this time of year.”
Beginning November 14 and continuing through December 18, many Southern States locations will be working with area food banks to help fill the shelves with food that will go to families in need during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. These participating retail locations will serve as collection centers for customers who bring in canned goods and non-perishable items, and Southern States will make regular deliveries of the donated items to the food banks.
According to Turner Gravitt, Southern States Director of Community Relations, the Holiday Food Drive is a natural extension of the company’s ongoing commitment to the communities they serve. “We live in these cities and towns,” he said. “We work here, our friends are here, so we as individuals – and as a company – have a responsibility to lend a hand, not only to our customers, but also to our neighbors.”
This ‘spirit of giving’ will benefit the local communities, but it will also be good for the participating Southern States stores.
“Our associates will be participating in something that benefits their communities, and that’s an indescribably good feeling,” said Steve Patterson, Southern States Vice President of Marketing. “And hopefully, we’ll get to meet some folks who have never been in one of our stores before, so really, everybody wins!”
Patterson encourages anyone interested in contributing to the Southern States Holiday Food Drive to contact their participating Southern States retail location for more information.
Southern States is a Richmond, Virginia-based farm supply and service cooperative, founded in 1923 that now has more than 300,000 farmer-members. As one of the nation’s largest agricultural cooperatives, it provides a wide range of farm inputs, including fertilizer, seed, livestock feed and pet food, animal health supplies and petroleum products, as well as other items for the farm and home. The cooperative serves its members and non-member customers through 1,200 retail outlets. Please visit http://www.southernstates.com for more information.