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<v Maryann Brunner-Community Fundraising Coordinator, Oregon Food Bank>Hunger is a very complicated subject. Food and feeding hungry people still remains challenging. The folks that are seeking our services, the majority of them have at least one working family member. They just can't make ends meet. And food is the only negotiable budget item.

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<v Jason Sledd-Store Manager, Smart Foodservice Warehouse Stores>My mom is a single mom raising me and my sister and we went to the food bank when we were younger. It's just something we had to do. You know, we didn't have money, so we went to the food bank and they helped us out.

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<v Tara Taylor-Associate Director of Community Engagement, Oregon Food Bank>There's a fairly big disconnect between who we think is hungry and who is actually struggling with hunger. The first thing is awareness. Because hunger isn't something that happens over here. It happens around us and in the communities that we live in.

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<v Marty Trtek-Former President of Smart Foodservice Warehouse Stores>Cash&Carry has grown and prospered in a lot of cities across the western states and we decided that we had to figure out a way to give back to these communities that have been so good to us over all these years.

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<v John Mathews-Vice-President, Sales & Marketing, Smart Foodservice Warehouse Stores>We wanted to try to come up with a three pronged approach to charity more than just donating money. We as a company thought it was important that we really support the communities that support us, that support our stores.

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<v Marty Trtek-Former President of Smart Foodservice Warehouse Stores>And so we hooked up with Oregon Food Bank. They got us in touch with Feeding America. It gave us the tentacles we needed to be able to touch all the spots we wanted to touch.

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<v John Mathews-Vice-President, Sales & Marketing, Smart Foodservice Warehouse Stores>So we've partnered with our vendors here at the golf tournament as one portion of the fund raising part. We also collect money in our stores, donations from our actual customers. All of the money that we collect locally at each store stays in that community.

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<v John Sutton, General Manager, R3>We all work in the same community and without having a strong, healthful, happy community none of us are going to succeed. The first year was so successful that we heard of so many wonderful stories, that we decided that we would participate  every single year.

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<v Domn Haney, Store Manager, Smart Foodservice Warehouse Stores>I thought that starting the Feed the Hungry Campaign was a good idea especially for our community. We have high poverty levels down in our area.

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<v Marty Trtek-Former President of Smart Foodservice Warehouse Stores>Our customers realize the importance of community and so we put the banners up. We don't pester them all year long with a bunch of donations, we do it once a year and say, Hey, this is our food drive for your community."

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<v John Mathews-Vice-President, Sales & Marketing, Smart Foodservice Warehouse Stores>We partnered with a local food bank in each of the communities. That Food bank comes once a week or twice a week, however often it's necessary and picks up all of our donated products.

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<v Katie Pearmine, Strategic Sourcing Manager, Oregon Food Bank>The standards at Cash&Carry are high. Food that gets donated to us is extremely high quality as well. Every person we've worked at every location has been exceptional. So we couldn't be happier with the partnership.

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<v John Mathews-Vice-President, Sales & Marketing, Smart Foodservice Warehouse Stores>The last prong is actually donating time. Once the year we gather all of our managers plus the entire Cash&Carry office and all of our district managers. We actually donate time at the food bank repacking food. I think probably the best part is the donation of the time. It really drives home the message. It really makes you understand why you're there.

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<v Tara Taylor-Associate Director of Community Engagement, Oregon Food Bank>Cash&Carry is the gold standard when it comes to partners. You see that passion when their employees come. You see It in the golf tournament when the Cash&Carry executives got up and spoke passionately on behalf of hunger.

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<v Marty Trtek-Former President of Smart Foodservice Warehouse Stores>The golf is fun. But handing the check and knowing that that's going to go to good? That's awesome! And I hope that over several years we can just keep growing this thing and I don't know what the limit is to what we could raise money wise. But I know that every year there's going to be a need and every year we can help fill that need.

