Largest Single Turkey Donation in Its History Given to Greater Boston Food Bank

On Friday, the Greater Boston Food Bank announced that it has received the single largest turkey donation in its history from New England-based supermarket chain Stop and Shop.

The supermarket delivered a donation of 7000 turkeys to the Food Bank to help it along toward its own record-high objective to charitably distribute 36,000 turkeys during this holiday season.

In addition, Stop & Shop is conducting its annual Food for Friends program, which will raise in excess of $1 million for over 300 local hunger-relief organizations throughout the Northeast, including The Greater Boston Food Bank.

To this end, all of the supermarket's stores sell customer-personalized paper turkeys at the checkout counter for a dollar apiece, which they then display throughout the store. 100% of the funds raised by the sale of the paper turkeys get donated to local hunger- relief organizations.

"Providing meals to those who need help is a cause that directly impacts each community in which we operate and gives each store the opportunity to form a lasting partnership with a local food pantry and make a difference," said Bill Holmes, Executive Vice President of Operations for Stop & Shop.

"Stop & Shop has been one of our most generous turkey donors for the past several years, and a terrific role model of commitment to corporate social responsibility, but this year they have set a new standard in their compassion and generosity," said Catherine D'Amato, president and CEO of The Greater Boston Food Bank.

37 years ago, the famous economist Milton Friedman published a famous article in which he expressed his total lack of patience with captains of industry in the United States who insisted that "business is not concerned 'merely' with profit but also with promoting desirable 'social' ends; that business has a 'social conscience'... Businessmen who talk this way are unwitting puppets of the intellectual forces that have been undermining the basis of a free society these past decades."

Friedman's conviction was that all corporations had only one responsibility, and that was to increase their profits for the sake of their shareholders.

This is the viewpoint that is usually attacked by those that Friedman readily called "socialists" and it is the basis on which many economic researchers such as former Clinton Administration Secretary of Labor Robert Reich build their cases for the government to manipulate the tax code and come up with targets for government regulations that would, in theory, force otherwise amoral corporations to be socially responsible.

However, say modern corporate executives, the view espoused by the esteemed economist never ruled out compassion, charity, or stewardship of the environment, and the actual practices of most corporations, especially in the years since Friedman published his piece, never have ruled out those qualities either.

Rather, they say, Friedman was trying to emphasize that corporations should not be bullied by government or political pressures into giving away everything they create, but should be allowed free reign to create the very wealth, goods, and products that charities such as the Greater Boston Food Bank need for distribution.

Original Newswire Source:
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