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Charities Spread Holiday Joy

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The Associated Press

Published: December 26, 2008

Updated: 12/26/2008 12:22 am

CINCINNATI - She sat patiently in her wheelchair, as scurrying volunteers gathered ham, a turkey, canned goods, bread, and bags of potatoes, apples and pungent onions in a storeroom with sporadic drafts of frigid air from outside.

But Patricia Jordan had a warm feeling as she considered the bounty that would help feed her cash-strapped household of 14, including her disabled-veteran husband, their children and her sister's family. She, like others who flocked to the FreestoreFoodbank this week, were concerned about companies reducing donations this year because of the economy.

"I think a lot of us were worried about everybody cutting back, but so far it's panning out," Jordan said. "You can't ask for any more than that, that they're still willing to help."

The food bank opened 90 minutes early Monday, at 6:30 a.m., after workers found 200 people lined up, some who had been waiting in near-zero cold since 4 a.m.

Across the nation, need is growing as the recession deepens and leaves more families struggling each day just to put food on the table. Feeding America, the largest domestic hunger-relief organization, says some 25 million people are going to such food banks, and the number is rising. And at the same time, many usual donors are facing their own budget problems.

COMPANIES HELPING FOOD BANKS

•Among those helping are Cincinnati-based Kroger Co.; Minneapolis-based SuperValu Inc.; Northfield, Ill.-based food maker Kraft Foods Inc.; and St. Louis-based bakery-restaurant chain Panera Bread Co.

•Some ailing companies such as Ford Motor Co., which donates refrigerated vehicles to help get food donations to rural areas, have continued charitable programs, but at reduced totals.

•Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the Bentonville, Ark.-based retail giant that has seen sales continue to grow in a discount-minded economy, has increased its giving of cash and food this year. The company donated nearly $300 million to charity last year.

•Ross Fraser, spokesman for Feeding America, said companies have been creative in keeping up donations - such as by diverting holiday gifts and year-end bonuses to charities.

•Kroger encourages customers to "round up" their bills at checkout to donate, and grocers are coming up with more in gleaning efforts, in which food that would be pulled off retail shelves because it's at sell-by dates or for other reasons is donated because it's still good to eat.

STAR POWER AIDS CHARITIES

•Members of the Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings manned Salvation Army kettles outside Kroger stores in Michigan.

•Cincinnati-based consumer products maker Procter & Gamble Co. has Tom Colicchio of Bravo TV's "Top Chef" in a meal donation program for its Cascade dishwashing brand.

•Olympic gold-medal gymnast Shawn Johnson helped an effort to hand out more than 1.4 million tubes of Crest toothpaste to the needy.

IT'S MORE THAN JUST FOOD

•Proctor & Gamble says it is keeping up charitable giving of well more than $100 million a year.

•P&G plans to provide millions of meals for children by tying consumer use of its coupons - coupon-clipping has made a comeback during the recession - to company donations.

•P&G has launched Duracell battery donations and an Iams pet food pet adoption program at a time of rising abandonments.

CUTTING CHARITABLE GIVING

•The New York-based Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy found that about a third of companies surveyed cut 2007 charitable giving.

•Sectors that showed declining giving in 2007 were financial, health care and utilities.

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