Perdue builds on long-time Feeding America partnership

Building upon a 16-year relationship with Feeding America®, Perdue Farms has launched a two-part consumer campaign to increase its annual food donation by the equivalent of two million meals while increasing awareness of the fight against hunger.
Perdue is already committed to donate a minimum of two million pounds of protein – the equivalent of eight million meals – each year. Through its 2015 consumer promotions, Perdue has pledged to donate up to an additional 500,000 pounds, or two million meals to Feeding America, the nation’s leading hunger-relief organization.
“The collaboration we have with longstanding and committed partners like Perdue helps our nationwide network of food banks support the more than 46 million Americans we serve each year,” said Nancy Curby, vice president of corporate partnerships at Feeding America. “We’re excited to work with Perdue in new ways and continue our fight to end hunger.”
Perdue’s cause-marketing campaign kicked off Aug. 23 with a “Get Deals, Donate Meals” coupon promotion. “Every time a consumer redeems one of our specially marked coupons, we’ll donate four ounces of protein – the equivalent of a meal — to Feeding America, up to 450,000 pounds,” said Eric Christianson, senior vice president of marketing and innovation for Perdue Foods, the foods division of Perdue Farms. Coupons are available at www.perdue.com and though newspaper inserts.
“In November, for the holiday season, we’ll add a second component, encouraging the Perdue social media community to participate by sharing posts across Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest,” said Christianson. Through the social media campaign, Perdue will donate four ounces of protein for each social media “share,” up to an additional 50,000 pounds (the equivalent of 200,000 meals).
“Hunger is America’s hidden epidemic,” added Christianson. “One in seven Americans depend upon Feeding America food banks, and hunger knows no boundaries. Through our campaign, we’re making it easy for consumers to join Feeding America and Perdue in the fight against hunger.”
“Perdue has supported Feeding America in the fight against hunger for 16 years,” said Chairman Jim Perdue. “We’re proud to increase our pledge to Feeding America, and to provide consumers with an easy way to help the 49 million Americans who face food insecurity. And, to get this campaign started, Perdue has also pledged an additional $50,000 from the Arthur W. Perdue Foundation to support Feeding America’s work.”
In 1999, Perdue Farms became one of the first meat companies to implement a formal program of ongoing donations of perishable protein products, creating a model for other companies to follow. Perdue now has a formal process for donating to Feeding America. The partnership earned Perdue Farms the “New Donor of the Year” award from Feeding America, followed a few years later by the Protein Donor of the Year award.
“We saw food banks and pantries were almost always in need of protein, and we needed an efficient way to get our perishable donations to the agencies helping people in their communities,” said Randy Day, president of Perdue Foods. “Through Feeding America’s network of community food banks and pantries, we’re able to get millions of pounds of product to people who are worried about feeding their families and themselves.”
This year, Feeding America recognized Perdue Farms as a Guiding Partner. “This recognition is for companies that donated between 2.5 million and five million pounds of food in our recent fiscal year,” said Randy Starck, senior account manager at Feeding America. “Perdue’s donations totaled nearly 4.9 million pounds in FY15.”
Perdue Farms also supports local food banks through grants for capital projects and programs, transportation of food and Perdue associate involvement. In 2013, the Arthur W. Perdue Foundation, the charitable giving arm of Perdue Farms, donated nearly $90,000 to food banks, pantries and hunger-relief agencies.
Perdue also partners with the Delmarva Shorebirds baseball team, the Class A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles, and the Food Bank of Delaware, the Eastern Shore Branch of the Maryland Food Bank and the Eastern Shore Branch of the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia for the annual “Perdue Strike Out Hunger Challenge on Delmarva.” Each baseball season, a $15,000 challenge grant from the Arthur W. Perdue Foundation encourages fans and the community to support their local food banks. This year, the Strike Out Hunger Challenge generated donations equivalent to 132,000 meals.
“In a country as rich in resources as ours, no one should go hungry,” said Perdue. “Feeding America’s network of local food banks is on the front line of the fight against hunger, and we’re proud to support their efforts through product donations, financial contributions, the efforts of our associates and now through a consumer promotions campaign.”