9/8/2009
Hitachi Home Electronics (America), Inc. Donates 1,298 Pounds of Food to Feeding America San Diego and $2,054 to Special Delivery San Diego During Annual Hitachi North America Food Drive
Chula Vista, Calif. (September 8, 2009) – Hitachi Home Electronics (America), Inc., located in Chula Vista, California, joined forces with 55 other individual Hitachi company locations across North America for the 2009 Annual Hitachi North America Food Drive. During the month of July, Hitachi North America companies, from Canada to the Gulf Coast, focused their corporate citizenship energies on collecting food and raising funds to help alleviate hunger. The summer months can be especially difficult for families facing hunger due to unavailable free and reduced-fee school lunches, making the 10th annual Hitachi North American Food Drive incredibly important.
Hitachi Home Electronics (America), Inc. collected 1,298 pounds of food and $2,054 in cash at their Chula Vista location. Overall, 26,855 pounds were collected by Hitachi Group Companies throughout North America. This year marks the 10th consecutive year that Hitachi Home Electronics (America), Inc. has participated and the 10th year Hitachi has coordinated Food Drive among its group companies.
The food collected by Hitachi Home Electronics (America), Inc. is being donated to Feeding America San Diego. Feeding America San Diego has been providing essential nutritious food to San Diego County since October 2007. FASD is an affiliate food bank of Feeding America and has been able to provide 14 million pounds in their last fiscal year June 1 2008 to July 1, 2009. Feeding America San Diego partners with 150 non-profit agencies to positively impact the lives of 267,000 San Diegans in just one year.
”This food donation comes at a critical time as more and more families are losing the primary wage earner,” says Gary McDonald, President and CEO of Feeding America San Diego, “Consequently many more children are not eating.”
The money collected by Hitachi Home Electronics (America), Inc. is being donated to Special Delivery San Diego. The mission of Special Delivery San Diego is “to provide home-delivered nutritious meals for people living with AIDS and other life threatening diseases, with hope that the love and care involved in their preparation and Special Delivery will provide food for both body and soul.”
“We are absolutely thrilled by the generosity of everyone at Hitachi. We will put Hitachi’s gifts to very good use and stretch your dollars with the food Feeding America San Diego supplies us!” said Roger Frey, volunteer at Special Delivery San Diego.
The annual food drive is a cooperative effort between the Hitachi Group companies across North America and The Hitachi Foundation. Through its Hitachi Community Action Partnership (HCAP) program, the Hitachi Foundation provides a framework for employee community engagement that is supported by Hitachi group companies and aimed at empowering employees to address specific needs in their local communities.
The Community Action Committee at Hitachi Home Electronics (America) organized several events to raise both money and food for the drive this year. In the spring it conducted a sale of used furniture at their Chula Vista location that raised over $1,900 to benefit the food drive in July.
During the month of July, employees were grouped into various baseball teams and competed against each other to bring in the most pounds of food. “We tried to make the food drive fun as well as rewarding for the employees. We set up a Wii console in the lunchroom during one of the collections so that everyone could get an at bat. The executives really got into the game!” said Nancy Flores, Chair of the Community Action Committee at Hitachi Home Electronics (America), Inc.
Hitachi is committed to fostering and promoting corporate citizenship where our employees live and work. The effort is in keeping with the commitment to help improve society through local community outreach. The Food Drive makes a meaningful difference, both in the food that is collected for local communities and the awareness raised among families of employees that hunger exists in every community.
ABOUT HITACHI
Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE: HIT / TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 400,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2008 (ended March 31, 2009) consolidated revenues totaled 10,000 billion yen ($102.0 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials, logistics and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.
Hitachi America, Ltd., headquartered in Tarrytown, New York, a subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., and its subsidiary companies offer a broad range of electronics, electronic contract manufacturing services, power and industrial equipment and services, automotive products and consumer electronics with operations throughout the Americas. For more information, visit www.hitachi-america.us. For information on other Hitachi Group companies in the United States, please visit www.hitachi.us.
Hitachi Home Electronics (America), Inc., Consumer Group subsidiary of Hitachi America, Ltd., markets high-definition plasma and LCD flat panel televisions and monitors, as well as Blu-ray Disc™, DVD and HDD camcorders and LCD projectors, interactive panels and whiteboards and security and observation system products through value added resellers, system integrators, distributors and OEM.
Hitachi has a unique position in the marketplace by manufacturing and developing its own core technologies to provide consumers and businesses with optimal product performance in each of Hitachi's product categories. For consumer and business products, visit www.hitachi-homeelectronics.us
ABOUT FEEDING AMERICA
Established in July of 2007, Feeding America San Diego is San Diego County’s largest distributor of donated food and the only Feeding America (formerly America’s Second Harvest) affiliate in San Diego County. Feeding America San Diego’s mission is “To feed the hungry; to advocate; to educate.” Last year they distributed more than 13 million pounds of food to those in need. For more information, please visit www.FeedSanDiego.org or call (858) 452-FOOD (3663).
ABOUT SPECIAL DELIVERY
Since 1991, Special Delivery San Diego has been delivering nutritious meals to men, women, and children living with AIDS and other life-threatening illnesses. For over 15 years, our home deliveries have been an essential ingredient to maintaining the good health of our clients.
As an all-volunteer organization, Special Delivery welcomes anyone who can donate an hour or two each week to help in the kitchen or deliver meals to our clients. To learn more about Special Delivery or volunteer opportunities, please visit our website at www.specialdeliverysandiego.com.
Contacts:
Tamara Deschryver
Hitachi America, Ltd.
619.591.5413
taara.deschryver@hal.hitachi.com
Leslie Huselton
Current
469.375.0247
lhuselton@currentlm.com
