PARKERSBURG - Two local organizations that help feed the less fortunate will benefit from a grant won by the area in Wal-Mart's Fight Hunger Together Facebook campaign during April.
Kevin Oshe, manager of the south Parkersburg Wal-Mart, said the $50,000 grant won in the vote went to the Mountaineer Food Bank, but some of the money will come back to the area.
"We said we wanted to see some of that come here and we got a $20,000 cut for the area," he said. "Parkersburg will see this come to light through the purchase of a commercial stove for North Parkersburg Baptist Church's Friendship Kitchen and a freezer, food processor and food slicer for Old Man Rivers."
Oshe said the items were bought from Lowe's and will be presented at 10 a.m. Friday at the south Parkersburg Lowe's.
In April's campaign the Parkersburg area was among the top 20 finishers in votes on Facebook. Cities finishing in the top 20 received grants of $50,000 to help combat hunger.
During April votes were cast on the Wal-Mart Facebook to select the top 20 out of 200 cities in the nation with the highest unemployment rates, as identified by the U.S. Department of Labor.
The Parkersburg area received around 7,000 votes and took ninth place in the top 20 finalists.
The campaign winner, Youngstown, Ohio, received a $1 million grant.
Other cities finishing in the top 20 were Johnson City, Tenn., Madera-Chowchilla, Calif., Fresno, Calif., Bakersfield-Delano, Calif., El Paso, Texas, Hanford-Corcoran, Calif., St. George, Utah, Toledo, Ohio, Danville, Va., Salem, Ore., Charlotte, N.C., Visalia-Porterville, Calif., Kokomo, Ind., Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., Modesto, Calif., Morristown, Tenn., Louisville, Ky., Yuma, Ariz., and The Inland Empire, Calif.
