MORGANTOWN — While some might take their grocery lists for granted, others don’t know how or when they might be able to afford essentials to feed themselves or their families.
That’s why Kroger and Feed the Hungry came together to pack boxes that will go to the less fortunate.
Kroger employees from across the region came together at the Suncrest Towne Centre Wednesday to put these boxes together and shipped them to Kroger stores in that region.
Terry Lucas, store leader, said Kroger has participated in this program for several years.
“Basically what happens is everyone you see here today is a representative of each store in this district. This district has 19 stores,” he said.
All of the product is shipped to the local store beforehand. Boxes are bundled with things like oats, peanut butter, canned meats, veggies and juice. Wednesday, the representatives from each store aimed to stuff around 1,800 boxes.
“It’s all shelf-stable. So what they’re doing is they’re actually boxing up Feed the Hungry boxes. They’re making pallets for each store that is here today,” he said.
The pallets will be shipped back to a warehouse in Roanoke, Va., and the warehouse will ship the boxes to each store.
“We will sell these boxes for $7.99 to customers, then we keep these boxes. When we (sell) enough, we contact the food bank and they come and pick them up and we donate them to the local food bank,” he said.
Retail of the items in the box are well over the $7.99 donation.
Lucas said this effort starts around this time of year to gear up for the holiday season. The boxes will go up for sale Oct. 1 at all Mid-Atlantic Kroger stores.
Other boxing events also took place at Kroger stores across Virginia, as well as in Huntington.
“Typically what each store will do is we’ll build like a creative display, like a Christmas tree and we alert the cashiers,” he said.
Lucas said since it’s almost time for the holidays, Zero Hunger and Zero Waste is a program Kroger does to give back to the communities they serve. Lucas said he is grateful to be part of a company that looks to give back to those who are less fortunate.
“When you look at these people that are giving up their time to do something like this, it says how important it is to all of us,” he said.
He said it’s important to recognize each community as well as Kroger.
“Because they support us. We couldn’t do it without them,” said Lucas.
