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What If You Had to Wait Two Days to Eat? Hunger Coalition Teams with Merrell to Feed Children in Need

Oct. 29, 2012. Mast General Store, Merrell Footwear and The Health and Hunger Coalition are partnering to provide children in the High Country with weekend food, and you can help. For each pair of Merrell shoes purchased at Mast Store Oct. 14-31, Merrell will fill a pack with food to feed a child for a weekend.

The Health and Hunger Coalition plays a vital role in our community, helping relieve poverty and hunger in a compassionate manner for families and individuals who are experiencing economic hardship and food shortages. The Coalition’s help is imperative as Watauga, Ashe and Avery counties have seen a 43 percent increase in need for food assistance since 2010.

During an average month, nearly 6,900 people receive food from the Hunger and Health Coalition’s Food Pantry. One in three people served is a child under the age of 18. Three of their six programs are geared specifically to help alleviate childhood hunger in our area.

Snacks for Scholars provides healthy snacks to children of families that need food assistance. Healthy Start provides healthy snack bags to preschool age children attending Head Start. The Backpack Program also provides backpacks of food every Friday to high school children so they won’t have to go hungry over the weekend.

This is the third year Mast General Store has partnered with Merrell to support Food For Kids. The combined efforts of this partnership provided over 2,422 backpacks of weekend food in 2011, but the need is still there. To find out more about how you can help fight hunger in the High Country, visit www.hungerandhealthcoalition.com

View the Food for Kids video: http://www.mastgeneralstore.com/Communities/mast/index.cfm/videos/food-for-kids-2012/

 

About Mast General Store

Mast General Store offers quality merchandise, fair prices, and friendly service in nine communities across North and South Carolina as well as Tennessee. Highly valuing good neighbor practices, each store invests itself in a variety of community partnerships throughout the year. Mast General Store is proud to partner with Merrell Footwear in support of Food For Kids 2012. 

About Merrell Footwear

Merrell has been a national footwear leader, offering high-performance hiking boots for over thirty years. Merrell’s mission: Treating our people and communities with respect is important to us. Each year we donate aid and thousands of employee hours in support of community organizations and causes. We care about our neighbors and colleagues.