FOOD for Lane County - Arlie and Company donates 17 tons of salmon

Arlie and Company donates 17 tons of salmon

EUGENE, Ore. (February 16, 2005) -- Thanks to a donation by Arlie and Company, a bounty of almost 17 tons of salmon patties will be delivered to FOOD for Lane County this Wednesday at 4:30 p.m., providing nutritious and child friendly protein for the food bank’s meal recipients. A truck will travel from Seattle to deliver 944 cases of salmon patties, made available to our community through FOOD for Lane County’s affiliation with America’s Second Harvest, the nation’s largest hunger-relief charity.

Arlie and Company principal, John Musumeci was inspired to donate the salmon because of his fondness for fishing. He takes his employees salmon fishing every year and is exuberant about helping FOOD for Lane County increase the nutrition of client’s food boxes with the fish.

"Salmon is probably the best fish you can eat," says Musumeci. "It’s a fresh, Northwest product that will feed thousands of people who are hungry, including kids. Salmon is really nutritious and it tastes good too. Kids love the patties. I’m pleased to be able to help children by making sure they get a healthy meal that they’ll actually eat.”

America’s Second Harvest secured the salmon patties through their partnership with SeaShare, a non-profit working with the commercial fishing industry to make donations of seafood available to America’s Second Harvest and its network of over 200 affiliates throughout the nation. SeaShare, in turn, arranges the processing of the patties through Ocean Beauty Seafoods, a seafood processing plant.

On its own, FOOD for Lane County didn’t have the money to take advantage of the opportunity to purchase salmon patties at the reduced price offered by America’s Second Harvest.

“Arlie and Company stepped up to the plate quickly, allowing us to purchase the product before it sold elsewhere,” said Pat Farr, Executive Director of FOOD for Lane County.

Each salmon patty provides a full day’s worth of protein and this donation supplies 175,000 high quality, high protein meals for hungry people in Lane County.

“I can’t express how grateful we are to Arlie and Company for this donation,” said Farr. “This is an important contribution for our food bank and for our community. One of our goals is to increase the nutrition of the food we distribute. Here, because of John Musumeci and Suzanne Arlie, we are doing just that.”

Contacts:

Terry Kirby, Communications Director, FOOD for Lane County
(541) 343-2822
tkirby@foodforlanecounty

Jim Harmon, Operations Director, SeaShare
(206) 842-3609 x202

Suzanne Arlie, Arlie and Company
(541) 344-5500