Bob Evans Farms Partners with Forgotten Harvest to Feed Local Families in Need

DETROIT, September 16, 2014 /3BL Media/ – According to the USDA, an estimated three million American households are food insecure - that amounts to one in six people who lack the nutritious food needed to live a healthy life. Metro Detroit residents have been hit particularly hard due to the economic downturn. Currently, one in four children in Metro Detroit faces hunger or a lack of food.

To address this issue, Bob Evans Farms has teamed up with Forgotten Harvest, Metro Detroit’s only food rescue operation, to help feed Metro Detroit’s food-insecure individuals and families. Through CBS EcoMedia’s WellnessAd program, Bob Evans will fund the basic needs of Forgotten Harvest’s Mobile Pantry Project at Landmark Church for a full year. This includes costs of distributing the food, sourcing the food, program implementation, and necessary equipment and supplies.

Bob Evans Farms’ support will provide nutritious food to 350 underserved families per month, serving 4,200 individuals annually.

Forgotten Harvest relieves hunger in the Detroit metropolitan community by rescuing surplus, prepared and perishable food and donating it to emergency food providers. Forgotten Harvest’s Mobile Pantry Project allows the nonprofit to serve more of the underserved and deliver fresh food directly into pockets of communities that have few or no emergency food providers. The Mobile Pantry Project is a very cost-effective way to distribute food to those who need it since it doesn’t require a building, significant staffing or refrigeration on the agencies’ part.

“Our founder, Bob Evans, always said that we should treat strangers like friends and friends like family,” said Kevin Andrachek, Region Leader for Bob Evans Restaurants. “Serving our neighbors is just a way of life for us and nothing pains us more than to see families not being able to come together and enjoy a good meal. We love the mobile pantry for its ability to get to people who may not be able to make it to their local food pantry and to truly make a positive difference in their lives.”

This partnership unites a successful nonprofit driving hunger from the Detroit community with a family-focused company committed to helping to elevate and address the issue. Bob Evans Farms’ Hunger Free Communities is a BE Kind initiative that provides a powerful platform for raising awareness and supporting those who are hungry in its communities. In 2013 alone, Bob Evans supplied more than 10 million meals to its neighbors in need.

Bob Evans Farms’ Harvest Program donates unused food to local emergency food banks, including local agencies that partner with Forgotten Harvest such as Gleaners Community Food Bank, Hope Center and the Salvation Army. In 2013, Bob Evans Farms donated 802,828 pounds of food which equated to a fair market value of $3,377,356. In 2014, Bob Evans Farms’ donation to local charities exceeded $3,000,000.

For each mobile pantry, Forgotten Harvest carefully selects fresh and healthy food at the distribution center, loads onto refrigerated trucks, and delivers to 69 mobile pantry sites. The Mobile Pantry Project rescued and distributed 18.7 million pounds of food in 2013, and will provide more than 22 million pounds in 2014.

 “Without dedicated partners like Bob Evans Farms and CBS EcoMedia, we could not possibly keep our trucks on the road six days a week to meet the needs of the one in five people who face hunger in metro Detroit,” said Marc Berke, Senior Director of Major Gifts from Forgotten Harvest.

An event was held at Forgotten Harvest today to celebrate the partnership and the impact on families in the community. Hosts of today’s event included Brian Dombek, Market Coach, along with Shelle Foreman, Area Coach, from Bob Evans Restaurants and Marc Berke, Senior Director of Major Gifts from Forgotten Harvest. Bob Evans Farms employees enjoyed a tour of Forgotten Harvest’s facilities and then volunteered by repacking food to be distributed to food pantries across Metro Detroit.  

“We thank Bob Evans Farms for their commitment to feeding their neighbors in need,” said Paul Polizzotto, Founder and President of CBS EcoMedia. “Bob Evans Farms’ support of Forgotten Harvest’s Mobile Pantry project will provide nutritious food to thousands of metro Detroit residents in underserved communities.”

To learn more ways that Bob Evans is giving back, including their upcoming holiday Farmhouse Feast donation campaign, visit http://www.bobevans.com/bekind.

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About Bob Evans Farms, Inc.
Bob Evans Farms, Inc. owns and operates full-service restaurants under the Bob Evans. Restaurants brand name. At the end of the first fiscal quarter (July 25, 2014), Bob Evans Restaurants owned and operated 562 family restaurants in 19 states, primarily in the Midwest, mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions of the United States. Bob Evans Farms, Inc., through its BEF Foods segment, is also a leading producer and distributor of refrigerated side dishes, pork sausage and a variety of refrigerated and frozen convenience food items under the Bob Evans and Owens brand names. For more information about Bob Evans Farms, Inc., visit www.bobevans.com.

About Forgotten Harvest
Forgotten Harvest was formed in 1990 to fight two problems: hunger and waste. Forgotten Harvest rescued 48.8million pounds of food last year by collecting surplus prepared and perishable food from 800 locations, including grocery stores, fruit and vegetable markets, restaurants, caterers, dairies, farmers, wholesale food distributors and other Health Department-approved sources. This donated food, which would otherwise go to waste, is delivered free-of-charge to 280 emergency food providers in the metro Detroit area. Learn more about Forgotten Harvest and how to help drive hunger from our community at www.forgottenharvest.org.

About CBS EcoMedia Inc.
At EcoMedia, we’re propelled by the desire to create positive social change; that’s been our mission since we founded the company in 2002.  In 2010, after successfully partnering with CBS on a wide range of environmental projects, EcoMedia became the newest addition to the CBS Corporation portfolio, exponentially scaling our reach across television, radio, interactive, publishing and outdoor media. 

Through our patent-pending EcoAd, WellnessAd and EducationAd programs, an innovative twist on traditional advertising, advertisers are able to support much-needed local projects which in turn creates jobs, saves taxpayer money and improves the quality of life in communities nationwide.  In the process, we’re fundamentally altering the advertising landscape, elevating the ordinary, traditional commercial – and media, in general – into a catalyst for tangible, quantifiable social change.  Please visit ecomediacbs.com, like us at facebook.com/EcoMediaCBS or follow us at Twitter.com/EcoMediaCBS.

By participating in EcoMedia’s EcoAd, WellnessAd and EducationAd advertising programs, EcoMedia’s advertisers agree to provide funding for projects we believe will have a beneficial effect upon the environment, health and/or education within local communities.  EcoMedia’s advertising programs are not certification programs nor are the EcoAd, WellnessAd or EducationAd logos seals of approval. EcoMedia does not in any way certify, endorse or make any representations about EcoMedia program advertisers, their products or services.