PODS® Joins ABC7, VONS in Mission to Provide 1.25 Million Meals for Hungry Los Angeles Residents

LOS ANGELES - June 26, 2013 - PRLog -- (LOS ANGELES) – June 25, 2013 – More than 650,000 Los Angeles children are forced to skip meals every day because they do not have food in their home, according to the Feeding America Map the Meal Gap 2013 report. To help fight hunger and feed local Southern California communities, PODS®, a moving and storage company, will join forces with ABC7, Vons, Care 1st, ESPN Radio and Mathis Brothers as the official partner to support Southern California Regional food banks through a major hunger initiative, Feed SoCal. The group aims to raise 1.5 million pounds of food to provide 1.25 million meals for local children and families in Southern California communities.

Taking place during the month of July, the widespread food drive will support the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, Second Harvest Food Bank Orange County, Second Harvest Food Bank Inland Empire and Ventura County’s FOOD Share.

As part of the hunger initiative, ABC7 will host four Stuff-a-Truck events on two Fridays during the month – July 19 and July 26. PODS® locations in Ventura, Riverside, Los Angeles and Orange County are working together to fill three PODS® containers with a donation of $10,000 in needed food to be delivered to the event drives. PODS will then transport the donations to the Second Harvest Food Bank Orange County, Los Angeles Regional Food Bank and Ventura County’s FOOD Share.

“PODS is dedicated to supporting efforts against the growing hunger problem in the communities we serve and ABC7’s Feed SoCal is a great program that will feed local children and families as well as help raise awareness of this growing epidemic,” said Mark Dubose, general manager of PODS® of Los Angeles. “We are committed to helping those who are less fortunate by providing our PODS® containers through this initiative.”  

Last year, the Feed SoCal campaign received more than 1 million pounds of food in donations, resulting in 833,333 meals for those in need.

For more information, visit: www.abc7.com

Media opportunity

What: Feed SoCal kickoff press conference
When: Friday, June 28, 10 a.m.
Where: Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, 1734 E. 41st St., Los Angeles, Calif.
Who: Mark Dubose, General Manager of PODS of Los Angeles; Lori Reyes, President/CEO of VONS; Arnie Kleiner, President/General Manager of ABC7;
Anna Tran, CEO/Marketing Director of Care 1st; Michael Flood, President of Los Angeles Regional FOOD Bank and members of the food banks.

About PODS Enterprises, Inc.

Founded in 1998, PODS currently provides moving and storage services to a population of more than 250 million consumers and businesses, in 48 U.S. states, Canada, Australia and the UK, through its company-owned and independent franchise network. To date, the PODS network has completed more than 400,000 long-distance relocations, exceeded 2.0 million deliveries and has over 145,000 PODS® containers in service.