51,000 Pounds Pledged Equals $17,166 to Regional Food Bank
July 29, 2010
OKLAHOMA CITY - More than 1,500 Oklahomans pledged to lose 51,000 pounds to help fight hunger in the state through the Pound for Pound Challenge. Thanks to these pledges, and a $10,000 grant from Feeding America, more than $17,100 was donated to the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma. This donation will provide 120,162 meals to hungry Oklahomans in central and Western Oklahoma.
“We want to thank everyone who pledged to become healthier and helped fight hunger in Oklahoma through the Pound for Pound Challenge,” said Rodney Bivens, executive director of the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma. “We are extremely grateful for this donation and also for the support from Feeding America and NBC’s The Biggest Loser.”
For every pound pledged at PFPChallenge.com, the Pound For Pound Challenge donated 14 cents to Feeding America, who then distributed the donations to Food Banks across the country, including the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma. Last year, Pound for Pound Challenge participants raised $3,700 for the Regional Food Bank.
The Pound For Pound Challenge, sponsored by The Biggest Loser, Feeding America, General Mills, Subway, 24 Hour Fitness and The Kroger Co., was designed to help deliver millions of pounds of groceries to local food banks across the U.S.
Oklahoma ranks as the sixth hungriest state in the nation, where one in seven people struggle with hunger every day. The majority of those served by the Regional Food Bank are children, seniors living on fixed incomes, and working families who cannot make ends meet.
The Regional Food Bank provides enough food to feed more than 77,000 hungry Oklahomans each week. Last fiscal year, the organization distributed nearly 36.5 million pounds in through a network of more than 700 charitable feeding programs and elementary schools. This is a 28% increase over the previous year.
Because food distribution has increased dramatically in the last twelve months, the Regional Food Bank is seeking additional volunteers to help pack food donations. The volunteer center is open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. Volunteering is also available by appointment on weeknights and Sundays.
Connect online with the Regional Food Bank at twitter.com/rfbo or facebook.com/regionalfoodbank.
The Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma is a private, 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization that acts as a link through which the food industry and community may donate food and other goods. The products are then distributed to nearly 700 schools and charitable feeding programs in 53 central and western Oklahoma counties. In the last fiscal year, the Food Bank distributed 36.5 million pounds of food and product to help the charitable community effectively feed people in need. Since its inception in 1980, the Regional Food Bank has distributed more than 354 million pounds of food to feed Oklahoma’s hungry. Visit regionalfoodbank.org to see the real-time counter that tracks the pounds and meals distributed every second.
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