ronaoke – Some much-needed help for holidays.
Pamela Irvine, President and CEO of Feeding Southwest Virginia said they’re working to help families struggling to make ends meet.
“Schools out a lot of times you know thanksgiving and Christmas holidays and so are the meals for the children, so we need to supplement those as well,” Irvine said.
Through a campaign called Food for Kids, Mast General Store in Roanoke is donating $15 for every Merrell shoe purchased to Feeding Southwest Virginia.
“It’s very important for us to have healthy communities in all the communities we are in and mast general store we do this across the board with all the locations we have we want to help the local people and partner with the great organizations in every community,” Olivia King, general manager of Mast general store said.
Feeding Southwest Virginia officials said Mast General gives the nonprofit about $10,000 dollars from donations, which includes customer round-ups at store cash registers and from the store itself – a donation that Irvine said is much needed for the holidays, especially due to inflation.
“We know that as families go to their favorite retail grocery store this year it’s going to be a price adjustment to what they can afford to provide for their families during the holidays,” Irvine said.
Jadrian Wooten, a Virginia Tech economics professor, said that turkey is 7% higher this year than last, but other meats like chicken are 2% lower.
“What a lot of consumers really want to do is really think about is this the year possibly instead of having a big turkey we do a smaller turkey and maybe offer chicken,” Wooten said.
Although some food in grocery stores will cost nearly the same as last year, experts said looking for deals this holiday will make a difference.