America's Second Harvest Announces 2002 Hunger's Hope Award Winners Road

Chicago, IL -- October 7, 2002 -- America's Second Harvest, the nation's largest charitable hunger-relief organization, today announced its 2002 Hunger's Hope Awards. This year, the Donor of the Year Award was presented to The Procter & Gamble Company. Also recognized for distinguished service to their service areas were two America's Second Harvest affiliates: The Food Bank of Eastern Michigan (Flint, MI) for Excellence in Food Banking, and The Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank (Baton Rouge, LA) for Excellence in Food Rescue. This year's award winners contributed to providing emergency food assistance to more than 23 million hungry Americans.

The Donor of the Year Award is presented each year to a corporate partner that makes an extraordinary donation of time, money and/or food to the network of more than 200 food banks and food-rescue organizations that make up America's Second Harvest. In 2002, Procter & Gamble donated a wide variety of food and grocery products, provided monetary support, and offered emergency assistance and guidance to those affiliates directly involved with disaster relief for 9/11. Further, P&G's financial support and technical assistance has provided America's Second Harvest and its affiliates invaluable aid in serving people who are struggling to feed their families.

The Excellence Awards were created to honor the most outstanding food banks and food rescue organizations in our network. The two recipients have risen above their everyday purpose of feeding hungry people; their efforts to improve their communities exemplify the best practices of our network.

The Food Bank of Eastern Michigan has been affiliated with America's Second Harvest for 21 years, and last year distributed 10.4 million pounds to almost 187,000 people in Eastern Michigan. The Food Bank has created and supports innovative programs, including a mobile pantry to distribute foods to rural communities across their service areas and their commitment to providing both nutritional foods and a basic nutrition education to the hungry people they serve, the Food Bank. The Food Bank serves as a multi-site sponsor of the federal Child and Adult Care Feeding Program (CACFP), which provides both administrative and food procurement funds, allowing day-care centers and after-school programs to provide nutritious meals to their clients.

The Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank became affiliated with America's Second Harvest in 2001 as a food rescue organization. In the past year alone, they provided hungry residents with more than five million pounds of food through community based agencies in their service area. The Food Bank operates programs such as Kids Cafe and a community kitchen called Project G.U.M.B.O. (Getting United to Make Better Opportunities), which uses donated produce and bakery items to create nutritious meals served at a local feeding site.

America's Second Harvest also recognized the Model Programs of other affiliates that include: Agency Relations - Capital Area Food Bank, Austin, TX; Volunteer Programs - Atlanta Community Food Bank, Atlanta, GA; Community Relations/Coalition Building - Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano Counties, Concord, CA; Public Relations/Awareness Campaign - Food Bank of Western New York, Buffalo, NY; Community Support - Arkansas Foodbank Network, Little Rock, AR; Food Resources Development - Food Bank of Eastern Michigan, Flint, MI.