PRESS RELEASE

Portland, Oregon  -  Meals on Wheels People, a food relief organization serving meals to food insecure seniors in the Greater Portland region, and IFCO Systems, the world’s leading provider of Reusable Plastic Containers (RPCs) for fresh food packaging, today announced IFCO is donating 600 RPCs to Meals on Wheels that will allow volunteers to pack and deliver nearly 8,000 meals daily to homebound seniors throughout the greater Portland-Vancouver metro area.

“Since the COVID-19 Pandemic started, our daily meal production has increased from 5,000 meals daily to nearly 8,000 meals daily. And deliveries have been reduced from five days per week to just one day per week. That means volunteers have a whole lot of meals to deliver,” said Meals on Wheels People Chief Executive Officer Suzanne Washington.

“The containers from IFCO will allow us to safely pack meals for transportation by our volunteers. The new containers are great for transporting cold and frozen items, and they nest well, hold more product and can be washed daily. We are extremely grateful to IFCO for donating the RPCs.”

“As a vital part of the global food supply chain, IFCO has a strong commitment to fighting hunger and food insecurity in the U.S. and around the world,” said Dan Martin, President of IFCO North America.  “Now, more than ever, we want to step up and help our friends at Meals on Wheels People get more food to more people during this terrible crisis.”

Meals on Wheels People delivers more than 1.3 million meals annually to older adults across the greater Portland area. Their 5,000 volunteers deliver meals to thousands of individuals, plus bulk food items like fruit, bread and milk, throughout a three-county area.  

IFCO previously donated RPCs to Meals on Wheels People for use in the Meals 4 Kids program that serves qualified children and families within the City of Portland experiencing food insecurity due to issues with their caregivers or a household’s inability to prepare or transport food.

IFCO RPCs are used to package, ship, store and transport a wide variety of fresh foods, including produce, baked goods and eggs and meat products from production facilities to retail or residential locations.  Every RPC is collected by IFCO after each use and cleaned, washed and sanitized before being used again.

IFCO RPCs are rigid and help protect food, virtually eliminating product damage and food waste. They also eliminate solid waste from single-use packaging, and are environmentally sustainable, as they use less energy and water when compared to other types of food packaging.