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Malt-o-Meal welcomed to Asheboro
| Malt-o-Meal welcomed to Asheboro Before an audience of roughly 200 guests and co-workers, Chris Neugent, Malt-o-Meal president and CEO, thanked everyone who made the event possible. He asked the same people to join the company in support of its Million Bowls Campaign, a food donation program to food banks across North Carolina. “This is a glorious day,” he told the crowd. “This is a great place to do great work.” Keith Crisco, N.C. Department of Commerce secretary and Asheboro businessman, was one of several guest speakers. He said Tuesday’s gathering was the result of successful collaboration between public and private partners and a good example of the state’s push to keep moving forward. Today’s economy requires bold action, he said.Don’t be afraid to make that next step,” he urged the audience. Malt-o-Meal selected Asheboro and the former Unilever food production site to become its East Coast manufacturing hub in November 2006. This is the Minneapolis-based company’s first production facility in the East. The 33-acre facility represents an investment of $140 million. Malt-o-Meal received nearly $4 million in financial incentives from Randolph County and Asheboro and an additional $1.09 million from the state to build the facility. It also received a grant from the N.C. Department of Transportation to build a railroad spur to the complex. Local government officials chimed in Tuesday with enthusiastic support for the operation. Asheboro Mayor David Jarrell pointed out that Malt-o-Meal is the 10th largest taxpayer in the city now. Bonnie Renfro, Randolph County Economic Development Corp. (EDC) president, called the project a win-win for everyone involved. She said the Malt-o-Meal project demonstrates the benefits of using incentive tools to attract and keep good quality jobs. The Asheboro facility houses state-of-the-art cereal production equipment and produces the company’s Frosted Mini Spooners and Frosted Flakes with the help of 133 employees. In the original proposal, Malt-o-Meal officials projected the facility would hire 167 employees within a five-year period. Plant Manager Dale Ducommun estimated he would meet that goal by the end of the year. Tuesday’s event was a time of giving as well as one of celebration. Malt-O-Meal has already donated enough of its Frosted Mini Spooners and Frosted Flakes cereal to provide 1 million servings to needy families through the food banks in the state. Company President Neugent used the event to expand Malt-o-Meal’s Million Bowls program with a challenge to consumers. He urged everyone to step up and match Malt-O-Meal’s donation by purchasing any variety of Malt-O-Meal cereal and registering their purchases online at www.MillionBowls.com. For every registered consumer purchase through the end of 2009, Malt-O-Meal will donate 10 servings of cereal to North Carolina food banks up to another 1 million servings. Clyde Fitzgerald Jr., executive director of the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina, provided some sobering statistics about hunger in the state. He said recent studies in North Carolina estimate 1.6 million people live in poverty, including more than 437,000 children and 117,300 seniors. Nearly one in every five children in North Carolina is categorized as either food insecure or hungry. Statewide demand for food assistance has increased 40 to 76 percent just in the last year, he said. “The people who are affected are often the first to be hit in an economic downtown and the last to recover,” he said. Malt-o-Meal products are available at a variety of local stores, including Dollar General, Family Dollar, Lowes Foods, MDI-supplied independent grocery stores, Rite Aid and Wal-Mart. Daily progress toward the program’s donation goal of a second 1 million servings can be tracked at www.MillionBowls.com. Consumers may friendwww.facebook.com/millionbowls and follow the program on Twitter@millionbowls, too. The cereal will go to state food banks that support feeding programs at local charitable agencies and serve all 100 counties in North Carolina, providing food for an estimated 1,098,200 people annually. |
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