Giant donates 2,200 pounds of food to bank

The Thomas Jefferson Area Food Bank got quite a gift Monday — 2,200 pounds of food.

The Harris Street food bank received the donation from Giant grocery store in the Albemarle Square shopping center. The store is undergoing a renovation, so it could no longer keep the food, none of which is near the expiration date, food bank volunteer Jim Campbell said.

The donation includes such items as spaghetti sauce, soup, pasta and more, he said.

“It’s all top-shelf stuff. In fact, a lot of it is organic,” he said.

Campbell, who owns Crystal Connections in the same shopping center as Giant, helped facilitate the donation.

“Everybody lined up to see it come in today,” he said Monday evening.

Food bank and Giant employees could not be reached for comment.

The local pantry is part of the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank network and serves Charlottesville and the counties of Albemarle, Buckingham, Culpeper, Fluvanna, Greene, Madison, Orange and Rappahannock.

Food pantries in the area have struggled to feed a growing demand from the poor recently. In July, the city pantry handed out 4,800 pounds of food, four times more than the same time a year earlier, a food bank network spokeswoman said recently.

Campbell said the donation was sorely needed.

“It’s at a low ebb right now,” he said. “That food from Giant comes at a good time.”

Giant also donated 600 linear feet of shelving to the local pantry, which currently stacks food on pallets.

“It’s pretty pitiful what we’ve got now,” Campbell said. “Now we’ve got food and a place to put it.”