Goal of Hunger Heroes Food Drive is to Supply One School with Enough Food for a Year

The Baker Tilly accounting firm of Southfield is hosting a two-week Hunger Heroes food drive with Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeast Michigan with a goal of providing more than 20,000 meals.

“Hunger is still a major issue in southeast Michigan,” Alan Whitman, Baker Tilly

managing partner, said in a news release. He noted that more than 320,000 children in southeast Michigan live near or below the poverty line, and providing them with nutritious food items helps ensure that they will in life and in school.

Whitman and other firm leaders believe “this critical issue affects our future as a region and a state,” he said. “Our firm’s goal is to provide enough food and funds to supply kids at one school with the food they need for the entire school year.

“We are proud to support Gleaners who are making progress every day,” he said.

Items especially needed are cereal, canned vegetables, peanut butter, canned fruit in light syrup and tuna, but anyone in the community is encouraged to bring nonperishable items.

The drive ends Thursday, July 31, when a Baker Tilly logo will be built from the cans of food donated food. It’s expected to be five feet high and 13 feet wide.

Other events at the Hunger Heroes finale, which will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Baker Tilly offices at  One Towne Square in Southfield, include a dunk tank will be on the premises; tailgating games, include ladder ball, corn hole and  grocery relay races; a bake sale fundraiser; and an area for photos as a Hunger Hero male or female.

With more than 1,600 employees, Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP (Baker Tilly) provides a wide range of accounting, tax and advisory services. Ranked as one of the 20 largest firms in the United States by Accounting Today (“Top 100 Firms” 2014), Baker Tilly serves clients from offices in Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, New York, Washington D.C. and throughout Wisconsin.

Baker Tilly is an independent member of Baker Tilly International, a worldwide network of independent accounting and business advisory firms in 137 countries (including Canada), with more than 26,000 professionals. The combined worldwide revenue of independent member firms is $3.4 billion.