Rent-A-Center Donates Funds and Freezers to Harvesters—The Community Food Network

September 4, 2014 at 11:05 AM EDT

Donation Part of $255,000 Earmarked for 11 Food Banks across the U.S.

KANSAS CITY, Mo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep. 4, 2014-- Rent-A-Center, Inc. (NASDAQ/NGS: RCII), the nation's largest rent-to-own operator, today donated $15,000, eight freezers, and two refrigerators to Harvesters—The Community Food Network. The appliances are earmarked for partner agencies of the food bank.

The Kansas City-based food bank is one of eleven across the nation sharing in $255,000 worth of Rent-A-Center funding for hunger relief this year.

The donation is in addition to the grassroots hunger-relief campaign being staged across Rent-A-Center’s 3,000-plus U.S. stores throughout September. Dubbed "Soup to Nuts" and in support of Hunger Action Month, this virtual food drive leverages Rent-A-Center stores as collection points for cash donations. The donated funds will be distributed to food banks across the country at the conclusion of the month-long campaign.

“Harvesters’ mission is to feed hungry people, and we work to provide the healthiest food available,” said Harvesters President and CEO Valerie Nicholson-Watson. “Rent-A-Center’s generous donation and the gift of refrigerators and freezers make it possible for more of our agencies to safely handle fresh produce and other healthy perishable foods their clients want and need.”

Rent-A-Center, headquartered in Plano, Texas, operates more than 3,000 stores in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada and Mexico. The Company employs over 21,000 coworkers. Learn more at www.rentacenter.com.

About Harvesters—The Community Food Network

Harvesters is a regional food bank and was Feeding America’s 2011 Food Bank of the Year. Serving a 26-county area of northwestern Missouri and northeastern Kansas, Harvesters provides food and related household products to more than 620 not-for-profit agencies including emergency food pantries, community kitchens, shelters and others. Agencies in Harvesters’ network provide food assistance to as many as 141,500 different people each month. Harvesters, which was founded in 1979, is a certified member of Feeding America, a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks, serving all 50 states. For more information, visit www.harvesters.org.

Source: Rent-A-Center, Inc.

Rent-A-Center, Inc.
Xavier Dominicis, 214-708-7980
media@rentacenter.com