Food and Agricultural Entities Team Up to Do Major Food Donation and Volunteer Event at Northwest Harvest

On Monday, April 13th at 2:00 pm, several key food and agricultural interests will be teaming up to hold a major food donation and volunteer event at the Northwest Harvest warehouse facility in Kent, Washington.

The event at Northwest Harvest is being sponsored by Sodexo "STOP Hunger," Hirai Farms/Annie's Fun, and National Frozen Foods Corporation as part of Governor Gregoire's "Feeding Washington" initiative. Deputy Director Bob Gore of the Washington State Department of Agriculture and Ian Morrison, Deputy Director of Outreach for the Governor's Office, will be attending the event.

In particular, Sodexo will be having 75 members of its management team come to Northwest Harvest in Kent to volunteer on April 13th, while Hirai Farms/Annie's Fun and National Frozen Foods Corporation will be donating several thousand pounds of frozen corn for the Sodexo volunteers to package for Northwest Harvest to distribute to its statewide network of nearly 300 food banks and meal programs.

"This cooperative effort is a wonderful 'farm-to-table' illustration of how growers, food processors, volunteers and distributors work together to meet the needs of the hungry across the state," says Northwest Harvest Executive Director Shelley Rotondo. "We're facing unprecedented need right now and we need their help more than ever."

Northwest Harvest has seen demand for its services rise nearly 20% over the past year. The agency's network now provides approximately 600,000 services per month to those in need across the state, including children and the elderly who make up more than half of the clients they serve.

For more information about this event, please contact Blaine Hirai of Annie's Fun at giving@AnniesFun.org or 509-693-7811, or Claire Acey, Director of Communications of Northwest Harvest, at clairea@northwestharvest.org or 206-923-7426.

Northwest Harvest is Washington's own statewide hunger relief agency, securing more than 18 million pounds of food annually for distribution to more than 300 food banks, meal programs and elementary schools throughout Washington.

Sodexo is a leading Food and Facilities Management services company. Sodexo has an ongoing commitment to help people who face hunger and malnutrition in the communities it serves. The company's various programs are coordinated under its "STOP Hunger" initiative, which now operates in 25 countries. Sodexo employees have contributed to more than 223 hunger-related NGOs and community-based groups since STOP Hunger's inception more than ten years ago. With the global problem of hunger and malnutrition now afflicting more than a billion people, Sodexo CEO Michel Landel has called upon the 355,000 Sodexo employees across the globe to join forces beginning in April for a month-long "Servathon" to donate food, serve meals and raise money for needy people in local communities.

Hirai Farms has been a family-owned and operated business in the Columbia Basin of Washington State since 1954. Blaine Hirai and the Hirai family maintain a strong tradition of giving back to local communities in the Pacific Northwest. In 2005, the Hirai family created "Annie's Fun," a non-profit, charitable 501(c)(3) organization, named after Blaine's mother, to help those in need. In 2008, Blaine Hirai and Annie's Fun donated 105,000 pounds of potatoes to several food banks in Washington State.