Perdue Farms $100,000 Grant Provides Food Bank with Refrigerated Tractor-Trailer for Distribution Amid COVID-19 Pandemic
Perdue Farms and the Food Bank of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City, N.C. have unveiled a new refrigerated tractor-trailer to support the organization’s distribution of food within the 15 counties the food bank serves in northeast North Carolina. The tractor-trailer was funded through a $100,000 grant by Franklin P. and Arthur W. Perdue Foundation, the charitable giving arm of Perdue Farms, in conjunction with the company’s 100th anniversary.
“This most generous gift from the Franklin P. and Arthur W. Perdue Foundation enabled the Food Bank to purchase a 53-foot refrigerated tractor-trailer that will help make transformational change year-over-year as we’re able to provide more nutritious protein and produce to the communities we serve,” said Liz Reasoner, executive director of the Food Bank of the Albemarle. “The trailer, which has been in service since March, is an indispensable asset to our current COVID-19 relief efforts, and this gift will have an incredible impact on food bank operations for years to come.”
The trailer provides additional storage and transportation capacity and enables the food bank to source and distribute an additional 700,000 pounds (2.8 million servings) of healthy and nutritious product annually. Since March, the Food Bank has utilized the trailer to store 200,000 pounds of food, distribute more than 100,000 pounds, and pick up an estimated 60,000 pounds of product this year from local produce farmers.