The Rescue Mission is the proud owner of a brand new box truck, thanks to a generous birthday gift from Kroger. Last year, the Mission served nearly 250,000 meals in addition to distributing 5,500 boxes of groceries to 1,200 area families enrolled in its Manna program.
Kroger Executive David Dantzler said Kroger was honored to donate over 500,000 of the 900,000 lbs. of food donated to the Mission in 2017 for its feeding ministries.
“At Kroger, the fight against hunger is a commitment we call Zero Hunger, Zero Waste,” said Dantzler. “Our goal is to eliminate hunger in the communities we serve by 2025. No family in any community we serve should ever go hungry.”
To that end, Dantzler handed Rescue Mission CEO Lee Clark the keys to a new GMC box truck which the Mission will use to pick up food donations from all its food partners.
“Each week the Mission picks up from 74 regular partners who give good, nutritious food to ensure no one goes hungry,” said Clark. “If not picked up on-time and handled properly this food, would go to waste.” This was becoming more and more difficult with our aging pantry trucks, so this new vehicle is filling a critical need.”
The Mission hosted more than 350 people at its Dine and Dash 70th Anniversary Luncheon held Thursday, Aug. 2 at Hotel Roanoke. The event included a service project to provide baskets of household products to families moving out of the Rescue Mission’s emergency shelter into permanent housing.
The Rescue Mission of Roanoke, located at 402 Fourth Street SE, is a 501(C)(3) grassroots organization serving as a Christian Crisis Intervention Center for Southwestern Virginia. Receiving no government funding of any kind, the Rescue Mission is supported by the generous donations of our community partners. Since 1948, The Rescue Mission has consistently served all people in need regardless of race, creed, gender, age, or ethnicity.
For more information about the Rescue Mission, please visit www.rescuemission.net, or call (540) 343-7227.
