New England Public Radio

24,000 Meals Donated to the Food Bank of Western Mass through NEPR’s Feed Your Radio, Feed a Family Campaign

Springfield, Mass.

Charles Miller of the ShopRite of Enfield, Kathy Tobin of the Food Bank and Martin Miller of NEPR at the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts
Charles Miller of the ShopRite of Enfield, Kathy Tobin of the Food Bank and Martin Miller of NEPR at the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts

Thanks to incredible support from public radio listeners across the region, New England Public Radio’s recent fundraising campaign, Feed Your Radio, Feed a Family, wrapped up in March with wonderful results. Over $187,000 was raised to support the station, and thanks to our partners at The ShopRite of Enfield, and two anonymous donors, $8,000 was pledged to The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts – enough to provide 24,000 meals to our neighbors in need.

This partnership between NEPR, The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts and the ShopRite of Enfield was created to raise awareness about hunger in the region and to help The Food Bank distribute food across western Massachusetts.

For every contribution made to New England Public Radio during the campaign (February 8 – March 13, 2016) the ShopRite of Enfield grocery store donated funds to provide seven meals to The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. Two anonymous donors also provided several “Challenge Days” over the course of the fundraiser, offering to double the meals provided to the Food Bank during a given time frame. Over 1,700 NEPR listeners participated in the campaign, including 385 new donors to NEPR.

This year, Feed Your Radio, Feed a Family was also able to support the Dakin Humane Society by offering “Dakin Day,” a special incentive on Saturday, March 5th. Dave’s Soda and Pet City, A.W. Brown’s, Pet Supplies Plus and Whole Foods made donations of cat food to the Dakin Humane Society for every pledge to NEPR, which was incredibly popular with NEPR listeners who contributed in large numbers that day.

“The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts serves 15,000 people every week in our community and we are happy to partner with them to raise awareness about food insecurity here in the region and money to support their efforts,” said NEPR’s CEO and general manager Martin Miller.

” We couldn’t be more pleased with the results of the fund drive and the support from our community,” said ShopRite’s president and owner Charles Miller. “It never ceases to astound us how the community can rally around such important causes- helping NEPR keep us well informed while taking on one of the most curable blights our society faces, food insecurity. We are proud to have partnered with the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts and NEPR and look forward to future collaborations that improve the well being of our community.”

 “We are very grateful for the on-going support of NEPR, their listeners and ShopRite of Enfield,” said The Food Bank’s executive director, Andrew Morehouse. “It is because of strong partnership like this that we are able to distribute nearly 10 million pounds of food annually to the people in our community facing hunger.”