DFW Business Competitors become Allies to Tackle Hunger with Largest Texas Food Drive
“Greater Dallas/Fort Worth Souper Bowl of Caring Food Drive” kicks off Jan 9 at Texas Stadium in Irving

Dallas — Leading grocers Albertsons, Central Market, Kroger and Tom Thumb have teamed up with Dallas/Fort Worth’s top media outlets, CBS 11, KLTY, KTCK, TXA 21, NBC 5, The Dallas Morning News, Star-Telegram, Telemundo 39, WFAA and 99.5 The Wolf to create the largest food drive in the history of Texas. Dallas Cowboys great Preston Pearson will kick off the food drive at 10:00am on January 9 at Texas Stadium in Irving.

Greater Dallas/Fort Worth Souper Bowl of Caring Food Drive takes place from Jan. 11 through Feb. 3, 2008. During that time, North Texans are invited to drop non-perishable foods or make cash donations at one of the 217 participating Albertsons, Central Market, Kroger and Tom Thumb grocery stores, with proceeds benefiting the North Texas Food Bank and the Tarrant Area Food Bank.

On any given day, 1.2 million people, living in households in North Central Texas will go without food. The Souper Bowl of Caring is a nationwide, grassroots movement of caring utilizing Super Bowl weekend to mobilize youth to fight hunger and poverty in local communities such as the DFW area.

“Texas is known for its generosity and we’re counting on reaching a goal of raising 2 million pounds of food to benefit the North Texas Food Bank and Tarrant Area Food Bank,” says Joan Hagan, Texas director for the Souper Bowl of Caring. “We will work with these two organizations to collect food for the 550 hunger relief agencies throughout the North Texas region.

In addition to in-store food drives, Greater Dallas/Fort Worth Souper Bowl of Caring Food Drive has reached out to 200 local churches and more than 150 public and private schools to host their own food drives and to volunteer to help collect donations during Super Bowl weekend.

“Thousands of men, women and children go to bed hungry every day in North Texas,” says Bo Soderbergh, Executive Director of Tarrant Area Food Bank. “We’re thrilled that North Texas business competitors have come together to truly make a measurable difference in our community. We hope this generous gesture will inspire our community to make this the greatest food drive in Texas history.”

“Hunger has no holiday and we rely heavily on the generosity of North Texans,” says Jan Pruitt, CEO of North Texas Food Bank. “We’re proud that the giants in the North Texas grocery business and in the local media have joined together in the fight to end hunger in our lifetime.”

For more information on the Greater Dallas/Fort Worth Souper Bowl of Caring Food Drive, participating stores and volunteer opportunities, log onto www.souperbowl.org/dfw or call North Texas Food Bank at (214)330-1396 or Tarrant Area Food Bank at 817-332-9177.

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SOUPER BOWL OF CARING
America's teens are transforming Super Bowl weekend into the nation's largest youth-led weekend of giving through the Souper Bowl of Caring. Armed with soup pots, teens in all 50 states collect donations at churches, schools and businesses, and every penny raised is given to local charities as selected by each group. Since beginning in 1990, more than $33 million has been raised for those in need. www.souperbowl.org.

ABOUT NORTH TEXAS FOOD BANK
Since it was founded in 1982 by Liz Minyard, Kathryn Hall, Jo Curtis and Lorraine Griffin Kircher, the NTFB has distributed 362 million pounds of food across our 13-county service area, which includes Dallas, Denton, Collin, Fannin, Rockwall, Hunt, Grayson, Kaufman, Ellis, Navarro, Lamar, Delta and Hopkins counties. Last year, the NTFB distributed 32 million pounds of food to 764 feeding and education programs including after-school programs, residential treatment programs, food pantries, emergency shelters, soup kitchens, senior citizen centers and low-income daycare centers.

ABOUT TARRANT AREA FOOD BANK
Tarrant Area Food Bank is a private nonprofit, rescues surplus food from becoming waste by accepting millions of pounds of it each year from the food industry and distributing that food to our partner agencies. Since opening our doors in 1982 as a distribution center, we have become the primary source of food for most hunger-relief programs in our 13-county region that includes Tarrant, Denton, Parker, Hood, Johnson, Palo Pinto, Erath, Somervell, Bosque, Hamilton, Hill, Cooke and Wise. Each month, our 300 partner food pantries, emergency shelters, soup kitchens, senior centers, after-school programs and other social service centers distribute emergency groceries to 35,000 families and serve 500,000 meals and snacks.