Dominick's and ABC 7 Chicago Join Forces for Annual Holiday Food Drive in an Effort to 'Fight Empty Plates' for Greater Chicago Food Depository

Dominick's and ABC 7 Chicago Join Forces for Annual Holiday Food Drive in an Effort to 'Fight Empty Plates' for Greater Chicago Food Depository

ABC 7's Tracy Butler Broadcasts Live from Three Dominick's Stores on Dec. 4

CHICAGO, Nov. 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Dominick's Finer Foods and ABC 7 Chicago will be helping to fight empty plates this holiday season by rolling out the food collection barrels and decking Depository Dollars near check-out counters for their annual Dominick's & ABC 7 Chicago Holiday Food Drive to benefit the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

(Logo:

http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040512/CGW059LOGO )

The eight-week event runs this year from Nov. 12, 2007 through Jan. 5, 2008. Last year, the food drive collected the equivalent of 828,699 pounds of food that benefited hungry men, women and children. This year, the goal is to gain the equivalent of more than 1 million pounds of food so that everyone in our community may enjoy the bounty of the holidays.

ABC 7 meteorologist Tracy Butler will help focus attention on the critical need to help fight hunger, with live reports and weathercasts from three area Dominick's stores on Tuesday, December 4.

Additionally, Tracy Butler and Bill Campbell, host and producer of ABC 7's "Chicagoing," will appear in public service announcements supporting the food drive. Butler and Campbell have spearheaded the public service campaign for the Holiday Food Drive since 1999. Butler will join Campbell on "Chicagoing" to examine the issue of hunger in the area and the importance of the Holiday Food Drive with Kate Maehr, executive director, Greater Chicago Food Depository, Sunday, November 25 at 11:00 a.m. on ABC 7.

During this effort to fight hunger across Cook County, individuals can drop off nonperishable food items at the ABC 7 Chicago lobby, at 190 N. State Street, or at any local Dominick's location or by making a donation to the Greater Chicago Food Depository through Depository Dollars, available at the check-out counters of any Chicagoland Dominick's store in $1, $2 and $5 denominations. A complete listing of Dominick's stores can be found at http://www.dominicks.com/.

A Virtual Food Drive will also be included on the ABC 7 Web site at http://www.abc7chicago.com/. The Virtual Food Drive appears similar to Web sites for online retailers, where Food Drive supporters can "buy" food items for donation to the Food Depository. All money raised from the Virtual Food Drive will be used to purchase high-quality, nutritious food needed by men, women and children in Cook County.

The Greater Chicago Food Depository is Cook County's food bank, a nonprofit food distribution center that provides food to almost 90,000 people each week through a network of 600 soup kitchens, food pantries and shelters. For more information, visit http://www.chicagosfoodbank.org/.

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FCMN Contact:

Photo:

http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040512/CGW059LOGO
http://photoarchive.ap.org/
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: Greater Chicago Food Depository

CONTACT: Bob Dolgan of Greater Chicago Food Depository, +1-773-843-7293,
rmdolgan@gcfd.org; or Wynona Redmond of Dominick's Finer Foods,
+1-630-891-5175, wynona.redmond@safeway.com; or Jayme Nicholas of ABC 7,
+1-312-750-7254, jayme.a.nicholas@abc.com

Web Site:

http://www.abc7chicago.com/
http://www.chicagosfoodbank.org/
http://www.dominicks.com/

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