Peapod Helps Sandy Families Restock
As the six-month anniversary of Hurricane Sandy nears, nonprofit hunger and poverty relief organization Family-to-Family Inc., and online grocer Peapod are launching a 90-day campaign to restock the kitchens of families still recovering from the storm.
Family-to-Family’s website enables donors to click, order and share a $62 Comforts of Home Welcome Home Box containing food staples for selected hurricane-affected families in Staten Island, The Rockaways, Brooklyn, New York City and Ocean County, N.J. Peapod by Stop & Shop, which will fulfill the orders and deliver the groceries to each recipient family, is also donating a matching box for the first 200 bought by donors and has offered to waive all delivery fees.
“It’s been six months since the hurricane hit, and many families are still struggling, financially and emotionally, to put the broken pieces of their lives back together,” said Pam Koner, founder and executive director of Family-to-Family. “Comforts of Home boxes will help these families in a concrete way and also let them know they haven’t been forgotten.”
Funded by an operational grant from New York-based Robin Hood, the effort aims not only to provide comfort to hard-hit Sandy families, but also to ease the financial burden of replacing costly grocery items.
Boxes will include such items as flour, sugar, herbs and spices, olive oil, oatmeal, breadcrumbs, peanut butter and jelly, black beans, rice, pasta, cereal and condiments. Recipients can choose from three food types: regular, low-sodium or diabetic.
“This is the best kind of delivery we can make,” noted Peg Merzbacher, director of marketing for Peapod, a division of Ahold USA. “The kitchen -- and the food in it -- is the centerpiece and heart of every home, so it’s so important that we are able to help families affected by Sandy rebuild with these essentials.”
Donors can also buy a second box, also for $62, for the family they’re helping: a Clean-up Box packed with such household supplies as laundry detergent and bathroom and kitchen cleaners, also supplied by Peapod.
Further, the New York City chapter of philanthropic organization WGIRLS Inc., has pledged $20,000 both to supplement the Comforts of Home Welcome Home Box campaign and support Family-to-Family’s mission to meet storm victims’ future needs as they arise.