Second Harvest Food Bank received a $50,000 check from Dot Foods of Modesto to cover the cost of more than 91,000 nutritious meals for struggling families in San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties and nearby foothill communities.

Food Bank staffers and Dot Foods’ employees gathered to the rear of a distribution truck next to the Industrial Park Drive warehouse where Rich Raham, Dot’s general manager of the Modesto distribution center, presented Second Harvest CEO Mike Mallory with a check as part of a nationwide effort representing their giveaway of 4,162,500 meals.

The presentation was part of the firm’s Neighbor-to-Neighbor Food Bank Program which this year is gifting $462,500 to 10 food “Feeding America” food banks across the country from their Tracy Foundation’s philanthropic program.  

Second Harvest board members present included Manteca Police Chief Nick Obligacion, Fire Chief Kirk Waters, Chuck Crutchfield, Shirley Perreira and  Alice Juarez. 

Dot Foods grew from a dream had by Robert and Dorothy Tracy in 1960 that evolved from a station wagon and two rented trucks to become the nation’s largest food redistributor.  Dick, John and Joe Tracy now head a company with headquarters in Mt. Sterling, IL.  Dot has nine distribution centers maintaining a presence in every region of the United States. 

Dot Foods buys full truckloads of nutritious products from some 600 manufacturers and consolidates their products in its nine distribution centers – reselling the needed inventory in “less-than-truckload” quantities to distributors who need smaller deliveries on a weekly basis.  In the U.S. there are more than 15,000 such distributors.

Dot sent eight of its Modesto employees to Second Harvest Monday morning in support of its general manager Rich Raham.  They included Todd Wenger, Dennis Gilbert, Joe Lema, Larry Baca, Brenda Carson, David Bigelow and Tori Welch.  They represented truck drivers, managers and inventory control specialists.