Philabundance, Toyota team up to Haul Away Hunger

KENSINGTON (WPVI) -- A huge effort is underway to provide meals to the needy this holiday season, involving hundreds of thousands of pounds of food and dozens of Toyota trucks.

It is the season of giving and tri-state Toyota dealers are teaming up with Philabundance to do that in a big way.

At the 12th annual Haul Away Hunger event on Friday, hundreds of thousands of food donations were taken to be distributed throughout the Delaware Valley just in time for Christmas.

"These are people who are working people, who are just not making enough and by getting them food they're able to save on that food bill and pay something else," said Glenn Dergnan, Executive Director of Philabundance.

Three-hundred and sixty thousand pounds of food were collected this year, a five percent increase over last year. 6abc and dozens of other business partners donated funds to help reach the milestone.

"The scary part about that is that feeds about 14-15,000 people. Philabundance feeds 90,000 people a week," said Paul Muller, President Tri-State Toyota Dealer Association.

All the food is housed in a warehouse in West Kensington until the real heavy lifting takes place, which is transporting all of that food to South Philadelphia.

And on Friday, the trucks were ready to go. 6abc even has it's own pick-up truck loaced with tons of food. They will all line up and head over to their final destination at Citizens Bank Park.

That's where the impressive caravan of pick up trucks comes in. Chopper 6 hovered overhead as nearly 80 Toyota Tundras drove off.

Bob McCormick has been a part of this event since the very first year. He's the VP and GM of Toyota of Vineland and also one of the truck drivers.

"There's so many people that can be anything that they possibly want to be and one thing they never should be is hungry," he said.

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