SELBYVILLE, DE - About 23,000 meals were assembled at Mountaire Farms' annual "Easter for Thousands" event on Saturday. The packaged meals will be given to those struggling with food insecurity this holiday.
Mountaire Farms held their annual "Easter for Thousands" event in Selbyville, Delaware on Saturday. Despite the chilly temperatures, members and volunteers from over 300 community groups across Delmarva worked together to assemble meal packages for families in need this Easter holiday.
Mountaire Farms says today they assembled 23,000 complete meals, and those meals will be enough to feed more than 90,000 people. According to Mountaire, the packages include "a plump Mountaire roaster, two cans of green beans, two cans of carrots, a box of macaroni and cheese, a box of chicken and rice, a box of cornbread, and a brownie mix."
Zach Evans, the Executive Manager of Industry and Stakeholder Affairs at Mountaire Farms, says the event helps give back to the community every holiday season. "We recognized very early on that part of the holiday season is to connect with family, friends, and loved ones, and sometimes that means sharing a meal". Evans says, "If we can help provide a family meal around the holidays for folks throughout our communities, we feel like that's a great way to show people that we care and appreciate what they do for us."
Evans says "Easter for Thousands" has been going on for over a decade now and the idea came from their annual "Thanksgiving for Thousands" event.
After all the boxes are packed up, 150 community non-profits pick them up and distribute them to the families in need across the peninsula.
For those on Delmarva looking to get out and help the next time Mountaire Farms has one of their meal packaging events, Evans says no experience is needed. "What's really special about the platform that we've created at Mountaire, you can show up, you don't have to have experience. You can be a brand-new volunteer, and you are going to contribute to an event that's going to feed over 30,000 of your neighbors."
The event was held in three other Mountaire Farms locations across the United States, including Siler City, Lumberton, and Statesville in North Carolina.