THV Summer Cereal Drive breaks record | Community Spirit

LITTLE ROCK, (KTHV) — A total of 212,873 boxes of cereal were donated to the Arkansas Foodbank in the 2011 Today’s THV Summer Cereal Drive, surpassing the record set last year of 195,876.

In the 11 years that Tom Brannon has hosted the cereal drive on his “THV This Morning” show on Channel 11, more than 1 million boxes of cereal have been donated to the Foodbank.

The cereal is being distributed to hungry families in Arkansas through food pantries in the Arkansas Foodbank’s 33-county service area.

Brannon announced the results on the morning show today.

In the competitive Business Division, Southwest Power Pool, a company that manages the electrical grid in nine southwestern states, won the overall award with a total of 24,868 boxes of cereal donated to the Foodbank.

Results for the three divisions were as follows:

• School division: 26,351 boxes
• Business division: 124,832
• Community division: 61,690
• GRAND TOTAL: 212,873

James Staats, the general manager of the Golden Corral restaurant in North Little Rock was also a huge help in making the drive a success. He hosted breakfasts for participants in the school and business divisions and worked as a volunteer alongside Foodbank staff members during Brannon’s broadcasts, helping to count the boxes of cereal as they were donated and loading donated cereal onto trucks.

Knight’s groceries, Walmart, Brookshire’s and Kroger all provided sites for Brannon’s remote broadcasts near the entrances to their stores.

The Knight’s grocery chain hosted remote broadcasts in Beebe and Cabot, where they offered a special “11 on 11” discount on cereal that gave customers 11 boxes of cereal for $11. Many customers immediately donated the cereal to the Cereal Drive by placing them in donation boxes in the stores or in Brannon’s staging area immediately upon leaving the stores.

Walmart provided sites for THV to set up at stores in Bryant, Russellville, Conway, Clinton and Hot Springs and placed donation boxes in the stores to collect cereal. Walmart has been a longtime supporter of the Cereal Drive and has helped the Arkansas Foodbank with donations of food and produce through the Foodbank’s retail pickup program that collects produce and food products from markets.

Brookshire’s food and pharmacy stores in Malvern, Arkadelphia and Pine Bluff hosted the Cereal Drive broadcasts and participated in the drives.

The community cereal drive concluded with a broadcast from the Kroger supermarket on Chenal in Little Rock.  Kroger is also a participant in the retail pickup program and a longtime supporter of the Foodbank and its work to end hunger in Arkansas.

The community that raised the most for the drive during the broadcasts was Cabot, with 16,104 boxes.

Food collected at the broadcast sites was taken directly to nearby pantries, so the local areas surrounding the drive collection points benefitted directly from the cereal collected. Foodbank partner agencies that participated included Cornerstone Nazarene Church in Bryant, Libby’s ROSE in Malvern, Community Family Enrichment in Arkadelphia, The First Assembly of God church in Russellville, Crosspoint Ministries and MannaFest Blessings food pantries in Beebe, the Soul Food Cafe Mission in Conway, Van Buren Food 4 Life in Clinton, Faith Fellowship Pantry in Hot Springs, Cabot Church of Christ pantry in Cabot, and the Share a Prayer pantry in Pine Bluff.

BUSINESS DIVISION

In the Business Division, besides Southwest Power Pool’s 24,868 boxes, other top contributors in each division were as follows: Division 1- Margland; Division 2-Everett Buick Pontiac; Division 3-Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care; Division 4- Cardinal Health; Division 5- Arkansas Children’s Hospital, and Division 6-Geyer Springs First Baptist Church.

Complete results will be posted at arkansasfoodbank.org.