Tyler Pipe Donates $10,000 to the East Texas Food Bank's BackPack Program
August 21, 2013
Tyler Pipe Donates $10,000 to the East Texas Food Bank’s BackPack Program
(Tyler, Texas) August 21, 2013 – Just in time for back to school, Tyler Pipe donated $10,000 to support the East Texas Food Bank’s BackPack Program at Tyler Independent School District. The BackPack Program provides weekend meals to children who participate in school meal programs during the week, but face hunger on weekends.
“We are extremely grateful to Tyler Pipe for their very generous support,” said Dennis Cullinane, Executive Director of the East Texas Food Bank. “Feeding our children and ensuring them of a sound nutritional foundation is critical to their education, their future and the development of our community.”
The East Texas Food Bank’s BackPack Program is designed to close the weekend “hunger gap” for children from low income families who might not have food otherwise throughout East Texas. Every Friday, for 36 weeks during the school year, participating children will receive a backpack filled with nutritious, kid-friendly foods such as soup, peanut butter, granola bars, fruit, juice and shelf-stable milk. It’s enough food to last them until Monday morning, when school meal programs resume.
“Tyler Pipe is proud to partner with the East Texas Food Bank to support the Back Pack Program and provide this vital need for the youth in our community says Faye Pettigrew, Human Resources Manager. Tyler Pipe is always proud to stand behind community endeavors that positively affect the residents of Smith County as we have for the past several years. In fact when we received the request for support, Tyler Pipe was only too proud to stand up and extend our assistance. Some of our Team Members have three generations of children going to school in our community. Tyler Pipe has committed to being a leader by pledging our support to organizations like the East Texas Food Bank and making our community a better place to live.
ETFB raises the funds to support the program, provide the food, buy the backpack, and cover all other administrative costs. Volunteers package the backpack “kits” at the East Texas Food Bank’s distribution warehouse and deliver the kits directly to participating campuses. Staff and faculty members at each participating campus choose children that qualify for the program, based on an assessment of need, and store and distribute the backpacks.
During the 2012-2013 school year, the East Texas Food Bank operated the BackPack Program at all 18 elementary campuses in Tyler and distributed nearly 30,000 backpacks, serving more than 1,100 children. At a projected cost of $4.50 per backpack, a gift of $10,000 will provide food for 2,222 backpacks – enough for about 62 children to receive nutritious weekend meals throughout the school year.
About Tyler Pipe
Tyler Pipe is a division of McWane, Inc. and produces cast iron soil pipe and fittings for the commercial building market. McWane, Inc. is a family business based in Birmingham, Alabama with iron foundries across the United States, Canada, and China. McWane’s divisions focus on the safe, environmentally friendly manufacturing of ductile iron pipe, cast iron soil pipe, fittings, hydrants and valves. These and other products provide the backbone of vital water distribution and wastewater treatment systems for communities across North America. The company employs more than 5,500 team members and has a longstanding commitment of support to the communities where our employees live and work. For more information, please visit www.tylerpipe.com.
East Texas Food Bank
The East Texas Food Bank provided more than 14 million meals in 2012, which is more than 16 million pounds of food, to more than 200 partner agencies in 26 East Texas counties. Our vision is for a hunger-free East Texas and our mission is to fight hunger and feed hope in East Texas. The East Texas Food Bank is a member of Feeding America and the Texas Food Bank Network. To learn more, please visit EastTexasFoodBank.org. Find us on Facebook at facebook.com/etfoodbank or follow our news on Twitter at twitter.com/etfoodbank .
About McWane Inc.
McWane, Inc. is a family-owned business based in Birmingham, Alabama, with companies across the U.S. and around the world. The McWane family of companies casts ductile iron products, including pipe, valves, hydrants, fittings and plumbing products; manufactures fire extinguishers, fire suppression systems and steel pressure vessels; and builds network switches and monitoring equipment. McWane is a leader in delivering clean, safe drinking water while focusing on safe, environmentally friendly manufacturing processes. With more than 7,000 team members, McWane has a longstanding commitment of supporting the communities where our team members live and work. For more information, visit mcwane.com.
