General Mills pledges up to $100,000 for famine relief

One very large food company is responding to the food crisis in Somalia.

The philanthropic arm of General Mills announced today it has donated $50,000 to the ARC, a Minneapolis-based group that is delivering aid to famine-stricken Somalia. The General Mills Foundation says it will make another matching contribution of up to an additional $50,000 from other Twin Cities companies.

The fact that General Mills is headquartered in the nation's largest Somali-American community was not lost on Ellen Goldberg Luger, vice president and General Mills Foundation executive director. And she's calling on other local corporations to dig deep:

"As the famine in Somalia reaches historic proportions, we encourage other Minnesota companies to support the critical relief work being done by the American Refugee Committee to address this devastating crisis."

As we reported last week, a single fund-raiser held at the Safari restaurant in Minneapolis drew in about $50,000 from Somali-Americans and friends. (Organizer Mohamed Hassan says early estimates of $53,000 were a bit high; he now puts it at $47,000. Still, it's not bad for an event that was put together in less than a week. On the other hand, a benefit concert held last Saturday had a poor turnout.)

We'll continue to track how Minnesotans -- individuals as well as companies -- work to address the humanitarian crisis in Somalia.

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