Latest coronavirus gifts to food banks include milk from Modesto, oatmeal from Idaho
Crystal Creamery of Modesto donated 5,800 half-gallon cartons of milk to two food banks dealing with the coronavirus.
Half went to Second Harvest Food Bank of San Joaquin & Stanislaus Counties on Friday, April 24. The other half arrived at Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services a day earlier.
The milk should pair well with another donation, oatmeal from an Idaho company to food banks in seven states. And the McDonald’s chain is pitching in with about 10 tons of frozen beef patties for Second Harvest.
Crystal shines
Crystal Creamery is the largest privately owned dairy company in California. It was founded by the Foster family in 1941, two years after it started the Foster Farms poultry company. The latter recently donated 2.4 million servings of chicken and turkey to food banks in the West Coast and Gulf Coast states where it has plants.
Sacramento’s role in the milk donation has to do with the origins of the dairy operation. The Crystal Cream and Butter Co. was founded in the capital city in 1901. The Foster family purchased it in 2006 and later adopted the brand name for all of its products.
“We are very pleased to have this opportunity to serve a couple of areas to which our company has deep ties,” Crystal CEO Martin Devine said in a news release.
“We know our customers and our neighbors need a helping hand, and Crystal Creamery wanted to do all we could to give back to the local communities where we live and work.”
Oatmeal descends on food banks
Second Harvest is among the food banks getting a total of 3.5 million servings of oatmeal from Happy Day Brands, based in Boise. The product was set to start arriving Monday, April 27, in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah and Nevada.
“We are dedicated to America’s hunger heroes who are working tirelessly to provide an unprecedented number of emergency food boxes to so many, and so quickly,” co-founder and CEO Mark Priddy said in a news release.
The oats are grown mostly in Idaho, and some come from Canada. The Central Valley grows oats, too, but as feed for dairy cows rather than breakfast for humans.
Ten tons of beef
Second Harvest received 20,700 pounds of frozen beef patties Thursday, April 23, from the owner/operators of two McDonald’s restaurants. One is Carli Schrader of Stockton. The other is Maryann Paciullo of Tehachapi.
They partnered on the effort with the Martin-Brower Co., a supply-chain provider for restaurants around the world.
McDonald’s also launched its Thank You Meal program around the nation for front-line workers in the pandemic. Participating locations will provide one free meal per day to health care workers, police officers, firefighters and paramedics.
This story was originally published April 28, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
