Local business packs 10,000 meals for hungry children

POCATELLO — Pocatello Electric in Old Town doesn’t usually stay open late, but on Thursday night they made an exception and for good reason.

Employees and volunteers at Pocatello Electric were busy packing meals for their no child hungry event.

“We thought we’d bring it to Pocatello,” Pocatello Electric owner Mike Vigliaturo told KPVI about their food packing event. “So we brought in a 15-hundred pound pallet and we’re going to pack 10,000 meals all of which will stay in our community.”

Vigliaturo said they chose this specific program as their way to give back to the community and to the children.

No Child Hungry is a national organization that supplies food and packaging supplies for volunteer events around the country. These events help feed children in the communities where the events are held. About 11 percent of children in Pocatello are without food on the weekends, Vigliaturo said. These meals help ensure that the children in Pocatello that need it, have something to eat on the weekends.

The packages include rice, protein powder, dried vegetables and a vitamin pack and makes six cups of rice and vegetables, according to the Idaho State Journal.

Vigliaturo said they have already made arrangements to distribute the food that was packaged.

“We’re distributing it through Aid for Friends, the Baptist church, Lutheran church, so it’s going to a lot of places very quickly and we’re very pleased about that,” he said.

Pocatello Electric is also hosting a food drive through Dec. 5, where you can donate five canned goods and receive a warranty certificate valued at $75 toward the purchase of an applicance at the store.