Western States Equipment has partnered with Albertsons to kick off the 'Dump Hunger' campaign, a post-holiday food drive reaching fives states, including Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Oregon and Washington.
The campaign started Jan. 15 and lasts through Jan. 24.

As part of the effort to provide hunger relief, Albertsons will be accepting donations at participating stores in the five states. Meanwhile, a select number of Albertsons stores will have Cat machines in their parking lots to draw attention to the cause.

"Getting involved with Dump Hunger was an easy decision for Albertsons as hunger relief is one of our top initiatives," said Mike Clawson, president of Albertsons Intermountain West. "We have donation bins at each Albertsons location, making it easy for our customers to purchase a few non-perishable items to donate while they are shopping."

In addition to customer food donations, Albertsons will contribute $25,000 in food items to the participating food bank partners. The amount for each food bank will be determined by the amount of food collected in each area. The total will be a prorated amount based on the percentage of total pounds collected at each store.

Western States has set a goal of gathering 150,000 pounds of food, an increase over 116,000 from last year.

"In addition to increasing our goal for gathering more food, Western States will contribute $1 for every 5 pounds of food collected, up to a $17,000 dollar match," said Tom Harris, president of Western States.