FEEDING THE HUNGRY: HARMON'S FOOD DRIVE AND GROCERY RESCUE PROGRAM

 Harmons and its customers donated 368,000 pounds of food to Utah Food Bank and local food pantries in 2010. This year, the  local, family-owned grocery store chain is celebrating its 79th birthday with another food drive.  During the month of August, Harmons will sell $10 Food for Families grocery bags pre-filled with essential non-perishable food items.

The public is invited to buy them and drop them in the  bins at the front of all Harmons’ stores.   Shoppers can also  buy a few extra canned goods or other non-perishable items and drop them in the Utah Food Bank bins that remain in the stores year round. Utah Food Bank collects nearly eight percent of its food from these kinds of food drives throughout the state annually.

Harmons is also  participating in Utah Food Bank’s Fresh Grocery Rescue program to provide “un-sellable” but safe, wholesome food that has reached its sell-by-date, but has not yet expired, such as meat, wall and service deli, dairy, produce, general non-food merchandise and other seasonal and discontinued items. The chain projects that it will donate approximately one half-million pounds of fresh foods through the Fresh Rescue program through the end of 2011.

Harmons was founded in1932 when Jake and Irene Harmon opened the Market Spot fruit stand on Main Street and 3300 South in Salt Lake City. Their son, Terry and his wife, Doreen, grew the business to 12 stores over 40 years. Now, with third and fourth generation Harmons continuing in the business, Harmons operates 14 stores from Ogden to St. George. The chain will open a 15^th store, Harmons Emigration Market, in early fall and a 16^thin the downtown City Creek development in spring of 2012.  Harmons, continues to be one of the few remaining locally-owned and family-operated grocery chains in Utah.

For more information about the food drive and Harmons’ history visit www.harmonsgrocery.com.

 For more information about Utah Food Bank, visit www.utahfoodbank.org. Find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/UtahFoodBank and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/UtahFoodBank.