MIX 101.5 Raises Over $68,000 During BackPack Buddies Food Drive

Generous MIX listeners donate to the 6th Annual BackPack Buddies Food Drive.

MIX 101.5 WRAL-FM raised a record-setting $68,000 during its annual BackPack Buddies Food Drive on Thursday, August 23, 2012, to help the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle. In addition to the monetary donations; almost 5 tons of food were collected.

Bill Jordan and Lynda Loveland of Bill & Lynda in the Morning kicked off the all day event encouraging MIX 101.5 listeners to donate food, new backpacks or monetary contributions at one of the two broadcast locations: Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh and Crossroads Plaza in Cary. Listeners could also donate online at wralfm.com.

“I’m very pleased with the outcome of this year’s BackPack Buddies food / fund drive. This is an annual community outreach program that is warmly embraced by our staff, our clients and our listeners,” says Ardie Gregory, General Manager of MIX 101.5. “It also gives the radio station a wonderful opportunity to raise awareness for childhood hunger in our community. We respect the work of Inter-Faith Food Shuttle and thank them for their commitment to ending hunger.”

WRAL-FM’s Jim Kelly (l to r) & Vanna Fox interview Inter-Faith Food Shuttle Executive Director Jill Bullard live on-air during the drive.

Over 111,000 children in a seven county region rely on free or reduced lunches during the school year.

The BackPack Buddies Program is designed to meet the needs of these children when other resources are not available by providing backpacks filled with enough food for six healthy meals and two healthy snacks that children take home on the weekend.

The empty backpacks are collected after the weekend and refilled for the next weekend’s use.

For more information, or to donate, visit the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle’s website at www.foodshuttle.org.

Thanks to WRAL-FM’s Jenny Clements for this capcom story & these capcom photos.