Charter One donates to food bank

YOUNGSTOWN — The Charter One Foundation has donated $10,000 to Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley to buy chickens to help feed hungry families this holiday season.

“The holiday season and winter months are especially difficult for struggling families, and Charter One’s gift will provide 13,800 pounds of poultry and 9,200 meals to hungry families in our community,” said Michael Iberis, executive director of the food bank.

This is the third year Charter One has partnered with the Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley to Carve Out Hunger, and it comes with an additional challenge — the rising cost of groceries, Iberis said.

Several factors, including high transportation costs, labor shortages and weather woes for farmers have contributed to the nearly 8-percent rise in the wholesale cost of food.

At 10 a.m. today, Charter One volunteers were to work at Second Harvest at 2805 Salt Springs Road sorting and shelving food.

“Charter One is proud to partner with the Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley to make thousands of chicken dinners available for the hungry in our community,” said Ned Handy, president of Charter One, Ohio.

The Charter One Foundation has donated $100,000 for holiday food programs to food banks across Ohio, Handy said.

Each day, Second Harvest Food Bank distributes 20,000 pounds of food to 170 hunger relief programs in Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

alcorn@vindy.com