Ford donates new, refrigerated truck to Gleaners food bank

By Robin Schwartz
Fox 2 News Reporter

DETROIT (WJBK) -- One by one, dozens of volunteers from Ford Motor Company and Gleaners lent a hand to help feed the hungry Monday.  Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford, Junior was part of the assembly line filling a brand new F-550 refrigerated truck his company donated.

"Unfortunately, the need just continue to grow, and we're going to work like heck to keep up with that need," said Ford.

Ford and Newman's Own, created by the late Paul Newman, partner with Feeding America, the nation's largest hunger relief organization, to distribute nutritious meals.  Food banks in four regions, including Gleaners in Detroit, got brand new trucks.

With this year's donation, 107 Ford trucks and vans have now gone to Feeding America food banks.  Over the last twelve years, more than 200 million meals have been delivered to families across the country.

Ford told the crowd Newman himself contacted him more than a decade ago and that's how the partnership and giving tradition began.

Since the program started, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of people who need help.  Gleaners is one of the oldest and largest food banks in the country distributing more than 46 million pounds of emergency food every year or 100,000 meals a day.