OUR NEIGHBORS IN NEED Our Most Vulnerable Neighbors Need Help Now More Than Ever For more than a decade, Rouses Markets has partnered with local food banks to provide
goods for those in need and, in time of crisis, has doubled its efforts to keep the community fed.
Historically, those crises have been things familiar to anyone along the Gulf Coast: hurricanes
and floods. Global pandemic is a new one, but
The first donation of the Rouses effort was 14,000 pounds of potatoes, purchased at a steep discount, and donated to Louisiana food banks.
the Rouses response has been no less robust.
“As soon as this started happening,” says Michael Westbrook, the deli, cold cuts and sushi director for Rouses Markets, “we jumped on it. We knew there would be economic hardship, and that food banks and local pantries would really get strained.” Westbrook, who is leading the company effort to keep those food pantries stocked, has been at it from the moment COVID-19 presented itself in the community. He has made it his mission to work with food banks in New Orleans, Mobile and Baton Rouge, to find out the needs of each of those communities, and then with store vendors, to find food to keep bellies full. “We’re trying to do our best to help out our local community,” he says. “The Rouse family really thinks in that manner. They know that we’re going to donate goods, but they ask us to reach out to our vendor partners to see if those companies can support our community locally, also.”
Tyson Foods and Smithfield Farms generously donated 125,000 pounds of food to the Rouses community.
Putting Food in the Bank Grocery stores buy their products from vendors — companies like Tyson Foods, which sells chicken, and Smithfield Foods, which sells pork. Vendors oftentimes have programs in place for donating to their own local food banks. Sometimes it’s near the facility where their product is made. A vendor in Kansas, for example, will donate to the needy in Kansas. But larger manufacturers have programs where, when disasters strike, retailers like Rouses can reach out and ask for donations to affected communities, wherever they are. Westbrook tapped into those programs and has been working with other Rouses vendors to help them establish relief initiatives of their own. “We are part of the community, and we want to take care of our community as much as we can,” he says. “Honestly, I just started calling vendors, asking, you know, what kind of program do you have? Do you have any product in excess? Is there any type of donation you can do?” And the response, he says, has been extraordinary. “All the vendors have been very happy to work with us.” The first donation of the Rouses effort was 14,000 pounds of potatoes. One Rouses partner was overwhelmed with mountains of potatoes and with nowhere to sell it. “As much as I could use it in the deli, I couldn’t use 14,000 pounds of it!” Westbrook got approval from his superiors at the company, purchased the potatoes at a steep discount, and gave them to Louisiana food banks. The mandatory ban on sit-down dining has devastated the restaurant industry, and that has in turn affected restaurant suppliers as well. 2 6 J U N E 20 20
Shoppers who want to help donation efforts should look into the Rouses brown bag program, which offers the opportunity to purchase $5 or $10 prepacked grocery bags for Second Harvest Food Bank.
