Dear Friends,
the fourth annual SN special report on the food industry's nonprofit Food For All initiative. This year's report has a very special meaning, since we will be celebrating our 20th anniversary in 2005. Operating first as Food Industry Crusade Against Hunger (FICAH), the food industry came together to help others help themselves to end hunger. Gene O'Neil, former chairman and chief executive officer, General Grocers, St. Louis; Dick Katzenbach, former president of Fleming Cos.; and George Small, president of George Small & Co., spearheaded our first major project. Working with other industry leaders, millions of pounds of food were sent to Ethiopia during its terrible drought. This was the beginning of an organization that has raised nearly $40 million for hundreds of charitable organizations throughout the world.
Separately, Food For All was founded by a group of visionaries who believed the food industry could make a difference in the lives of people throughout the world. In this report, SN has interviewed several of the industry leaders associated with both FICAH and Food For All. In the interviews that follow, you will see how passion and need came together in the formation of these two organizations, and how they were united into a single organization whose mission has remained strong and steadfast.
You'll also see the direction Food For All is headed in the new millennium in the interview with Larry McCurry, Food For All's chairman.
But the real heroes of these stories are the thousands of retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers who continue to support Food For All's mission: Self-Help Solutions to End Hunger.
By the time you read this, we will be launching our 2004 holiday program in more than 6,000 supermarkets. When the holiday program ends in early January, we will have raised $4 million to be donated to local charities throughout the United States.
This SN special report is a tribute to the food industry and all that it has done to help those in need.
