Utah Food Bank Web Site

April 18, 2000

The Utah Food Bank estimates it will come up about two million pounds short of the amount of food it collected last year.

Many people and many organizations donate, but the Food Bank is also looking to hotels and restaurants for help. News Specialist Scott Light explains.

Warren Goodspeed helps make sure people have hot meals to eat. He drives a truck for the Utah Food Bank and picks up food that's leftover from restaurants and hotels.

Pizza Huts are every day stops. The pizzas then go to shelters and soup kitchens.

Warren Goodspeed/Utah Food Bank] [RUNS=:07] (("ALL THE TIME.. I THINK ABOUT IT'S IMPORTANT TO ME TO MAKE SURE I CAN GET SOME DECENT FOOD FOR THEM AND GET ENOUGH IN MY TRUCK TO DISTRIBUTE."

So far, the Utah Food Bank has had a hard time tapping into restaurants and hotels. The fear is liability.

It turns out, if a food contribution is made in good faith, there is no liability under the Good Samaritan Law.

Jim Pugh/Utah Food Bank: "UNDERSTAND THAT THERE ARE LAWS TO PROTECT THESE PEOPLE, THAT THEY ARE NOT LIABLE FOR THIS PRODUCT AND THAT IT'S A CONTRIBUTION THAT CAN BE MADE."

The Food Bank's effort was bolstered Tuesday by, of all things, a merger.

Two of the biggest hunger relief groups-- America's Second Harvest and Foodchain-- agreed to combine forces. That means a bigger, nationwide organization can have a greater presence when asking companies for contributions, both nationally and at the local level.

Scott Light/Eyewitness News: "THIS IS PART OF THE HAUL FROM THE RECENT BOY SCOUTS FOOD DRIVE, WHICH COLLECTED 40-PERCENT MORE FOOD THIS YEAR THAN ANY OTHER YEAR. STILL, SUPPLIES ARE LOW AND THAT'S ONE REASON THE FOOD BANK IS LOOKING FOR MORE CORPORATE PARTNERS LIKE PIZZA HUT."

Jim Pugh/Utah Food Bank: "THE NEED IS OUT THERE AND IT'S ALWAYS GROWING, SO WHATEVER WE CAN GET IN IS HELPFUL."

This Boy Scout supply will be gone by July. Ask the Food Bank or any shelter and they'll tell you every can, package, and pizza slice counts.