A Tyson Foods tractor-trailer delivered nearly 25,000 pounds of frozen chicken to Samaritan Kitchen of Wilkes on April 19 to stock a walk-in freezer/cooler purchased by the Wilkesboro nonprofit in late 2018, thanks to a Tyson donation of nearly $22,000.
The frozen chicken and cash gift were part of Tyson’s 50-in-5 commitment, the company’s pledge to donate $50 million in cash and in-kind donations for hunger relief nationwide by 2020. Tyson started the initiative in 2015, and had reached $45 million by the end of 2018.
The chicken was the largest such donation Samaritan Kitchen has received and will result in the nonprofit’s 800 client families receiving double what they normally would get in a single monthly allocation, said Samaritan Kitchen Director Dick Johnston.
Johnston said he also contacted Wilkes Ministry of h.o.p.e. Director John Triplett about sharing some of the chicken with that food pantry to help meet local needs.
He said Samaritan Kitchen only had two four-door freezers before it acquired the walk-in freezer/cooler, so it now can receive considerably more food from Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina. Samaritan Kitchen is at the intersection of U.S. 421 and N.C. 16 North in Wilkesboro.
Tyson donates millions of pounds of food to food banks annually, mostly Feed America food banks in urban areas, said Pat Bourke, Tyson social responsibility specialist.
Bourke said money given for the 10-foot-by-20-foot walk-in freezer/cooler bought by Samaritan Kitchen and last week’s frozen chicken shipment is part of a pilot program resulting from the company’s goal of donating a percentage of food “directly to communities where our team members live and work.”
As part of the pilot program, food banks in about 15 small communities with a large Tyson presence were recently awarded grants for equipment needed to accommodate large shipments of Tyson product.
He said the expansion of freezer capacity makes the targeted delivery possible. The donations typically include portions of food shipments that mistakenly exceeded what customers ordered or had damaged but still unopened containers.
“We ask them (recipient food pantries in the pilot program) to be willing to share what they receive from Tyson with other pantries in their communities,” said Bourke, adding that Samaritan Kitchen is the first recipient in the pilot effort.
He said the recipient pantries are all considerable distances from Feed America food banks.
The Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina, the Feeding America food bank closest to Wilkesboro, distributes to food banks in Wilkes and 17 other North Carolina counties so the volume of food it can send to Wilkes is limited.
Bourke said hunger relief is the primary way Tyson Foods gives back, and delivery of the nearly 25,000 pounds of frozen chicken to Samaritan Kitchen on April 19 “is perfectly aligned with the company’s efforts to fight hunger in the communities where our team members live and work.”
He added, “We give back to the communities where we operate because it’s simply the right thing to do and is part of our culture.”
Springdale, Ark.-based Tyson Foods is the largest meat producer in the nation. It also is Wilkes County’s largest employer, with a large chicken processing complex in Wilkesboro.
