Preston Hollow People: Ebby Drums Up Help For Food Bank

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Ebby Drums Up Help For Food Bank
Charity ailing in wake of government shutdown

By Margaux Anbouba

It's been more than a week since the federal government shut down, and institutions across the nation are losed or stymied in response.

More than 1,300 miles away from the Capitol, the North Texas Food Bank is suffering. In the next five months, the food bank is scheduled to receive 134 truckloads of USDA food to give out to the hungry. In the past week, 10 of those truckloads have been cancelled, and another 36 are in limbo.

"Families who depend on these benefits to feed their children will be the most hurt," said Jan Pruitt, president and CEO of the food bank. "This is totally unacceptable in modern-day America."

The food bank will not suffer in silence; otherwise, the people who it helps every day will go hungry. Instead, food bank leaders are asking the community for help.

The Ebby Halliday Companies are among the first businesses to answer the plea, and the staff there wants to make it as easy as possible for the public to donate.

"The North Texas Food Bank always needs our support," said Randall Graham, vice president and director of marketing for the Ebby Halliday Companies. "We contacted them and said we wanted to help, and they said our timing was really good because they are in desperate need for help and that the shelves are bare."

Through Nov. 17 the company will be having a canned food drive at all of its 25 offices across North Texas. The charitable event is taking place in conjunction with Ebby's fall marketing campaign "The Kitchen is the Heart of the Home."

"As we were celebrating the home and family, meals, and all of the things that surround the kitchen, we felt like we should focus on those who are less fortunate," Graham said. "We are using it as an opportunity to get the message out that we need to do what we can for the less fortunate. That's how the food campaign started."

For those who can't make it to an Ebby Halliday location, financial donations can be made online at ntfb.org. Every dollar trying counts, because one dollar provides three meals to a hungry person in the Dallas area.

The food bank is about to enter its busy season with the holidays coming up. With a little help, its staff will be able to continue distributing 1 million pounds of food per month to those in Dallas who cannot provide for themselves.