EL PASO, Tex. — The people who run the nation's food banks were giving thanks Monday to the $500 million FirstLight Federal Credit Union of El Paso for helping collect 55,000 pounds of foodstuffs, described as a "huge amount and very successful drive" for the West Texas Food Bank, a regional charity based in Odessa.
"I think that's quite a number and deserves recognition," said a spokesman for America's Second Harvest, a Chicago-based agency which helps service a national network of 200 food banks across the U.S.
FirstLight FCU put together this year's food collection as part of its annual sponsorship of the FirstLight FCU Sun Bowl parade, now in its third year and held Nov. 22 with the game slated Dec. 31.
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FirstLight officials said it was only decided late last year to include a food drive with the parade with only 3,500 lbs collected.
This year, however, "we wanted the food drive to be even larger and we succeeded," said a FirstLight spokeswoman. In fact, "this was by far the largest food drive in the history of the city with over 100 volunteers collecting 55,000 lbs of food before and during the parade, with bins all along the parade route, to help feed the hungry throughout El Paso," said Karl Murphy, FirstLightpresident/CEO.
Murphy said FirstLight "is proud to support this worthy cause and with the FirstLight FCU Sun Bowl Parade it is one way that we can all give back to our community."
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