Bob Evans Farms and Michael Foods, both part of Post Holdings, are responding to the increased need for food donations due to COVID-19 in the communities where they have manufacturing facilities.
The companies have donated egg and potato meal kits to food banks in a variety of communities, and also contributed food packages for their employees and immediate families. Donation events are continuing to be scheduled in the next two weeks and it is estimated the meal kits will reach more than 15,000 families in 10 states.
The meal kits contain a range of products from both Bob Evans Farms and Michael Foods, including mashed potatoes, peeled hard cooked eggs, egg whites, peeled russet diced potatoes, shredded potatoes and Papetti’s liquid eggs. Along with the products, each kit contains recipes and nutritional facts to help families prepare meals.
Many news organizations covered the drive through food donation events where employees, spaced six feet apart, placed the kits in people’s trunks. In Des Moines, TV station KCCI covered the Michael Foods donations in progress, held at Orchard Hills Elementary School in Norwalk, Iowa. In Texas, the Sulphur Springs News-Telegram publicized the Bob Evans Farms donation drive through event, which was expected to feed 2,400 families prior to the Easter holiday weekend. “It has been a quite a labor of love to organize this donation on Good Friday,” said Lezley Brown of the Hopkins County Chamber of Commerce in Sulphur Springs. In the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, donations are being made regularly to Hope Breakfast Bar, a restaurant in St. Paul, MN that evolved into a community kitchen for those in need after closing their dining room due to COVID-19. Hope Breakfast Bar is feeding 10,000 needy families across the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
“The feedback from organizations that received our donations has simply been overwhelming,” said Steve Schonohoff, Senior Vice President, Integrated Supply Chain. “There is a profound sense of appreciation that truly speaks to who we are as an organization.”
Across the operating companies of Post Holdings, charitable efforts have amplified. Post Consumer Brands, headquartered in Lakeville, MN, made both cereal and financial donations to local food banks and in St. Louis, the headquarters city of Post Holdings, a donation was made to Operation Food Search, a service that feeds 200,000 people each month and is now additionally providing emergency food packs to those in need.
