Valley stays in lead in hunger-aid drive

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Monday is the last day to vote to get the Youngstown-Warren area to stay in first place in the nation to win $1 million in grants through the Walmart Facebook Fighting Hunger Together campaign.

As of late Sunday, the local area had accumulated more than 64,000 votes. In second place was Johnson City, Tenn., with just over 49,000 votes, and Fresno, Calif., was in third place with more than 24,000 votes.

Based on Walmart’s 2011 distribution of the $1 million in grants in Salt Lake City, Utah, last year’s top vote-getter, Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley in Youngstown would get the bulk of the funds and other agencies, such as Catholic Charities, would also get shares of the money.

According to the Deseret News in Salt Lake City, Walmart presented $1 million in grants to eight nonprofits, including $700,000 to the Utah Food Bank. The remaining $300,000 was divided among the other seven organizations.

Second Harvest supplies many of the local social service agencies and church food pantries in the tri-county area, who were urged to keep up the effort.

To vote, Facebook users must visit Walmart’s corporate Facebook page and click the logo “Fighting Hunger Together,” select Ohio, and then choose the “Youngstown-Warren, OH Area” said Becky Miller, Second Harvest spokeswoman.

As part of Walmart’s Fighting Hunger Together initiative, the company chose 200 metro areas for its Facebook campaign where unemployment rates are the highest, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, making the Youngstown-Warren area eligible.