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It’s in the bag: Local celebrities bag groceries for charity
By Brian BishopPress Staff Writer
bbishop@johnsoncitypress.comShoppers at Food City stores throughout the region might have seen familiar faces at the checkout line on Tuesday, and it was all for a charitable cause. Local celebrities volunteered their time to bag groceries at multiple Food City locations to raise money and awareness for the United Way.
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“We are doing this in about five different cities,” Food City Senior Marketing VP Tom Hembree said. “We are doing it in Kingsport, Johnson City, Bristol, Abingdon (Va.) and Lebanon (Va.). It’s really spreading out this year. Last year it was only in certain stores up around Bristol but we decided to go all out this year and do some other places.”
“This is absolutely a great opportunity, because not only is this happening in Washington County, but throughout our region,” Washington County Untied Way President & CEO Lester Lattany said. “It’s a really great opportunity for people to understand what Food City is trying to let them know about the value of our partnerships with United Way organizations.”
Most of the celebrity baggers caught on quickly with their training and understood not to crush the bread, eggs, chips and other fragile items, but WJHL’s Josh Smith required a little extra attention, according to Food City management.
“Josh is a little tough, but all of them do a good job,” Hembree said. “We just tell them to keep the eggs on top, the bread on top and everything else wherever they can put it.”
“Every dollar raised in any component of our campaign is extremely important and critical,” Lattany said. “Every opportunity that we have to maintain the campaign and help the campaign grow means we’ve got more dollars available for those who provide direct services in our community. We just want to tell the public thank you for remembering the United Way and the work they do.”