Peach Tree Times

The Atlanta Hawks and State Farm recently welcomed more than 5,000 volunteers at State Farm Arena to pack upwards of one million meals as part of the Million Meal Pack for charity.

Dan Krause, Southeastern Market Area senior vice president at State Farm, noted that the Million Meal Pack event makes a real difference in the lives of Atlanta residents facing food insecurity; a recent release from the NBA said.

“We are very grateful for all of today’s volunteers and extremely proud of the results from today’s Million Meal Pack in partnership with State Farm,” Steve Koonin, CEO of the Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena, said in the release. “We understand that it is a huge undertaking to tackle food insecurity throughout Atlanta, and we believe that this one-day community service initiative will make an incredible impact and also inspire our communities throughout metro Atlanta.”

Koonin and Krause were joined at the event by Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, NBA Hall of Famer and Hawks legend Dikembe Mutombo and Congresswoman Nikema Williams, who thanked volunteers for their support and donation of time to the cause, which is being touted as the team’s largest single-day community service initiative.

During the event, individuals, families, community groups, schools, churches and businesses gathered on the floor of State Farm Arena and packed alongside volunteers from U.S. Hunger and executives from the Hawks and State Farm, reaching a final count of 1,019,232 meals, the release said.

At the end of the day, the six 90-minute shifts of the event yielded 169,872 bags of food; 130,943 pounds of food; 3,539 boxes of food; 288 meals per box and 48 bags per box.