SALISBURY, Md. — As part of a company commitment to fighting hunger in its communities, Perdue partnered with the Delmarva Shorebirds, Class A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles, for a unique campaign that helped produce more than a quarter of a million meals across South Atlantic League communities.
Perdue sponsored the 2011 "Strike Out Hunger" All-Star Game at Arthur W. Perdue Stadium on behalf of the three main Delmarva food banks.
The resulting "Strike Out Hunger" campaign, ran from Feb. 22 until today's South Atlantic League (SAL) All-Star game, and was focused on raising food donations and funds, and encouraging volunteer efforts to benefit the Eastern Shore Branch of the Maryland Food Bank, the Food Bank of Delaware and the Eastern Shore Branch of the Food Bank of Southeastern Virginia.
"The 2011 Strike Out Hunger All-Star Game provided us with the perfect stage to bring the problem of hunger to the forefront," said Andrea Williams, vice-president and controller, Perdue Foods and co-chair of the Strike Out Hunger Campaign. "The communities stepped up to support the campaign and made it a big success."
In addition to our work with the Shorebirds on Delmarva, each team in the South Atlantic League was challenged to work with its own local Feeding America affiliate food bank to raise the equivalent of 5,000 meals with the promise of a $1,000 grant from the Arthur W. Perdue Foundation.
All 14 league teams surpassed the "Step Up To The Plate Challenge" and today the Arthur W. Perdue Foundation awarded checks for $1,000 to each team's partner food bank. This $14,000 is equivalent to an additional 27,000 meals created throughout the South Atlantic League communities.
Locally, as a step to show the types of events that can take place in the community to support food banks, all of the
Perdue facilities on Delmarva held a week-long employee food drive that collected more than 9,350 pounds of food. Other businesses, groups and individuals throughout Delmarva followed suit managing their own drives, including elementary schools, Little Leagues, colleges, banks and even auto part stores.
As another component of this campaign, Perdue committed to donating $10 for each time the Shorebirds' pitchers struck out an opposing batter (up to $5,000). The Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore stepped up to match that pledge, bringing the total to $20 per strikeout. The team's 500 first-half strikeouts netted $10,000 for the campaign.
More of Delmarva stepped up with those ranging from Food Lion to the Veterans of Foreign Wars to individual Shorebirds fans making personal cash donations.
During a pregame presentation, the Arthur W. Perdue Foundation awarded the Maryland Food Bank Eastern Shore Branch, Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia Eastern Shore Branch and Food Bank of Delaware each an additional $3,000 in grant money.
On Delmarva, the campaign produced more than 75,000 meals to go along with more than 175,000 throughout the rest of the league for a total of more than 250,000.
“The incredible thing about a campaign like this is that it stretches the value of the money from the Arthur W. Perdue Foundation and takes our grant dollars much farther than they could have gone on their own," said Bill Hetherington, director of the AWP Foundation. "On behalf of all 17 South Atlantic League community food banks, we'd like to thank everyone who participated in the campaign."
Source: Perdue
