Thermo King is helping fight the United States hunger epidemic by committing nearly $500,000 to expand its social sustainability program, We Move Food, the transport temperature control company said.
The latest commitment catapults the program’s total giving to nearly $750,000 in two years, Thermo King said, resulting in more than 5.7 million meals for people in need.
“Thermo King and our entire dealer network are passionate about finding innovative ways where we can do our part in helping to address hunger,“ said Ray Pittard, president of Thermo King. “The We Move Food program helps to build sustainable partnerships with hunger relief organizations enabling us to use our expertise, our time and our technology to build their transport refrigeration capacity so that they can increase the amount of fresh food they deliver, expand the communities that they serve and reach even more families in need.”
Forty percent of the nation’s food, or nearly $200 billion worth, goes to waste each year in the US, Thermo King said. Yet 40 million people struggle with hunger, 12 million of them are children, and more than 23 million people in the US live in areas where access to affordable and healthy food options is limited or nonexistent. Nearly half of those people are considered low income, making it more challenging to attain the nutrition necessary to live healthy and active lifestyles.
“Transport refrigeration plays a critical role in addressing food insecurity,” Pittard said. “With the staggering amount of waste each year and the millions who are suffering, we know that producing more food is not the answer. We need to recover what would potentially be wasted and get that fresh food to the people in need.
“That’s literally what Thermo King and our dealer network does—we move food.”
Ingersoll Rand and Thermo King employees from across the US, alongside employees from the Thermo King dealer network—which is nearly 200 strong and located in all major US cities—are volunteering at mobile food pantries and food drives, reclaiming healthy food from retailers and restaurants, and working with community food banks to make their operations run more efficiently and effectively, the company said.
Thermo King and Ingersoll Rand have a national relationship with Feeding America, a nationwide network of 200 food banks and the nation's leading domestic hunger-relief charity. Ingersoll Rand’s roots are grounded in addressing global trends, like food stability, that impact the way we live, work and move. As part of the company’s commitment to sustainability, it is working toward achieving 2020 sustainability goals, including supporting food stability and nutritional education to 200,000 children through signature programs like We Move Food.
Ingersoll Rand has exceeded the goal, two years ahead of schedule, the company said.
