Carrier Transicold’s Warm Generosity Keeps Utah Food Bank Deliveries Cool

Supporting Utah Food Bank’s initiatives to fight hunger and food insecurity, Carrier Transicold recently provided the organization with a new generation Supra truck refrigeration unit to keep perishable food at the right temperature as it is delivered to food pantries around the state. The grant is funded in part by Carrier and its parent company, United Technologies Corp., to aid food banks in the Feeding America network. 

“With this gift, Carrier Transicold is helping Utah Food Bank to collect food from local drives, food manufacturers and grocery rescue programs and transport that food –free of cost – to our partner agencies, so it’s available for seniors, adults and children at moments in their lives when they simply don’t have enough money for food,” said Ginette Bott, president and chief executive officer, Utah Food Bank. “The value of the Supra unit is equal to the cost of about 48,100 meals provided by our organization.

For more than 110 years, Utah Food Bank has stayed true to its objective of serving those in need throughout the state. In 2018, it distributed more than 36 million meals through its network of 150 partner agencies located in all 29 counties. Utah Food Bank is the state’s only member of Feeding America, the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief organization.

In its mission to serve the one in eight Utahns at risk of missing a meal on any given day, Utah Food Bank’s 47-vehicle fleet travels enough miles in a year to encircle the earth 19 times at the equator.  

“Utah Food Bank does great work for people in need locally and in communities throughout the state,” said Royal Richards, territory manager, Carrier Transicold of Utah, the dealership that installed the Supra unit onto a 24-foot box truck for the food bank. “Our employees were especially proud to be a part of this initiative.”

Established in 2017, Carrier Transicold’s grant program in support of Feeding America network food banks across the U.S. has funded $300,000 worth of equipment and installation of truck and trailer refrigeration units for individual food banks that are part of the Feeding America network. In addition to Utah, to date more than a dozen food banks covering parts of Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, South Dakota, Arizona, Nevada and California have been helped through the program.

“Our cold-chain technologies help preserve, protect and deliver the world’s food supply,” said Jon Shaw, director, global communications & sustainability, Carrier Transicold & Refrigeration Systems. “In supporting Feeding America and its network members, such as Utah Food Bank, we are also helping to get nutritious and healthy perishable food to those most in need here in the United States.”