Purchase-based PepsiCo began a monthlong community service program this morning that will ultimately use 1,000 employees to pack 1 million meals for underserved communities in Westchester County and Latin America.
About 285,000 meals were expected to be packed today by 300 workers at the beverage and food giant”™s Westchester headquarters.
PepsiCo’s nutrition operation, Food for Good, will pack 2,000 weekend backpack bundles full of 10,000 meals for families in Westchester this month in partnership with Elmsford-based Feeding Westchester, a member of the Feeding America network.
Humanitarian groups CARE and Rise Against Hunger will deliver the finished meals to communities in Guatemala, elementary schools in El Salvador and Venezuelan families displaced in Colombia and Brazil with the help of local PepsiCo team members.
Food for Good has delivered 80 million servings of foods to low-income families in 19 U.S. communities since 2009, according to the company. Since 2008, the PepsiCo Foundation has provided more than $12 million of support to the World Food Programme to improve the availability of affordable nutrition for families and children around the world, the company said in a statement.
“PepsiCo’s determination to reach people in need and fight hunger is greater than ever before as global hunger continues to rise ”“ impacting an astounding one in every nine people,” said Jon Banner, President, PepsiCo Foundation and EVP, Communications. “Our year-round efforts to alleviate hunger intensify today, as our team packs meals for more than 10,000 school children in Guatemalan communities near where we work. At the same time, victims of Hurricane Florence in the Southeast U.S. are being reached by our Food for Good nutrition team with healthy meals as they rebuild their homes and communities.”
