Mirabito launches ‘Round Up' program to benefit Southern Tier Food Bank
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. (WIVT/WBGH) – Shoppers at local Mirabito Convenience Stores can help feed the less fortunate this month. The gas station chain has launched a Round Up program to benefit the Food Bank of the Southern Tier throughout March.
Customers at stores within the Food Bank's 6-county region will be asked to round up their in-store purchases with the money going to help feed the hungry. The Food Bank's Corporate Partnerships Manager Maddy McClenahan says the small individual donations can add up to thousands of dollars.
'Just being here this morning, I got to interact with a bunch of them and got to speak on the impact their donation has. It really is true that the smallest amount truly does make a significant difference,' McClenahan said.
This Round Up campaign is one of several Mirabito schedules throughout the year at its 109 stores, each one benefiting a different regional charity. Marketing Director Marissa Sweeney says the company steps in at the end with a contribution of its own.
'At the end of this campaign, Mirabito Convenience Stores rounds up that round up as well, really making that significant impact. So, really it's a partnership between Mirabito Convenience Stores and our community partners. We're not just relying on our community members to round up their purchases, we're doing our part to round up as well,' Sweeney said.
Mirabito is also contributing to the Food bank of Central New York and the Regional Food Bank to address hunger in the counties they serve as well.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Yahoo
RFK Jr.'s New Crusade Is Freaking Out White House Aides
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s war on pesticides is alarming White House and federal agency officials, according to The Wall Street Journal. Top aides are reportedly on edge ahead of an expected May 22 report to 'Make America Healthy Again' from Kennedy, who was confirmed in January as President Donald Trump's pick for secretary of health and human services. People familiar with the matter told the Journal that the report will spotlight what Kennedy believes is the 'deleterious impact of pesticides' on health. Targets include glyphosate—the active ingredient in Roundup, the world's most widely used weedkiller—and atrazine, a herbicide commonly sprayed on corn and grasses. Government officials worry Kennedy's push to link pesticides to U.S. health issues could disrupt the nation's food supply chain, according to the Journal. Kennedy has long been a vocal critic of pesticide use, arguing that chemicals like glyphosate and atrazine contribute to chronic health issues in the U.S. He made headlines when he suggested that endocrine disruptors—chemicals found in pesticides and plastic—may be influencing children's sexual orientation and gender identity. The Environmental Working Group said in 2024 that potentially harmful pesticides were found on more than 75 percent of non-organic fresh produce sold in the United States. Trump launched the 'Make America Healthy Again' Commission in February, with a sweeping mission to 'address the growing health crisis in America' by focusing on 'understanding and drastically lowering chronic disease rates and ending childhood chronic disease.' On the campaign trail last year, Trump vowed to probe pesticides and the causes of chronic health diseases. 'Millions and millions of Americans who want clean air, clean water and a healthy nation have concerns about toxins in our environment and pesticides in our food,' he said at a rally with Kennedy in Arizona in August. Behind the scenes, farm and food groups have also been scrambling to meet with White House officials to express their concerns about the report, according to the Journal. They are worried it could torpedo trust in decades of pesticide research. Illinois farmer and National Corn Growers Association President Kenneth Hartman Jr. told the newspaper that he fears the report will cast out 'the extensive research and testing on pesticides and cast doubt on the safe use of these technologies.' The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House and the HHS for comment. 'HHS, EPA, USDA and other federal partners are working closely to ensure the final report reflects gold standard science and practical considerations that will Make America Healthy Again,' an HHS spokesman told the Journal. 'The MAHA Commission's first report for President Trump will be a landmark assessment of what we know about the causes of America's chronic disease crisis and what we need further research on,' a White House spokesman told the publication. Sources told the Journal that the forthcoming 'Make America Healthy Again' report has been largely shaped by Kennedy adviser Calley Means, who co-wrote a book on the dangers of pesticides with his sister, new Trump surgeon general nominee Dr. Casey Means. The siblings say their book, Good Energy, is 'a unifying framework for understanding what is causing symptoms and diseases, and how to feel amazing now and in the future.'
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Yahoo
Missouri appeals court upholds $611M judgment in Roundup liability case
Bayer lost its appeal Tuesday of a $611 million Missouri court judgment that found the glyphosat in Roundup weed killer caused their cancers (). German chemical giant Bayer received no relief from runaway litigation costs associated with Roundup herbicide Tuesday when the Western District Missouri Court of Appeals upheld a $611 million judgment that its product causes cancer. The decision, in a case involving three plaintiffs who sued in Cole County, is one of the reasons the company, which acquired Roundup as a product when it merged with Monsanto, in 2018, is considering dropping the product entirely. The company faces 67,000 lawsuits claiming the main ingredient, glyphosate, causes non-Hodgkin lymphoma, with many of those cases awaiting trial in St. Louis County, where the company has its Bayer Crop Science headquarters. The company failed to win passage of a bill intended to shield it from litigation in Missouri. The bill narrowly passed the House but lobbying missteps, including a campaign targeting some of the most conservative members of the state Senate, doomed it. The company did win passage of similar legislation in North Dakota and in Georgia. In November 2023, a Cole County jury awarded $1.6 billion to three plaintiffs who claimed their cancer was caused by glyphosate exposure while using Roundup. Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green reduced the $500 million punitive damages awarded to each plaintiff, instead reducing each award by varying amounts. Green did not change the amounts awarded for actual damages, which ranged from $5.6 million to $38 million and totaled $61.1 million. With post-judgment interest, the total Bayer owes is now in excess of $700 million. 'We're certainly pleased with the court of appeals decision that vindicates the jury's verdict and the trial court's judgment,' said attorney Matthew Clement of Jefferson City, who represented the plaintiffs in the case. 'We're happy that nothing happened in the legislature, this year at least, that will affect future cases and and will continue to litigate our cases like we had been.' In a statement issued through Bayer spokesman Brian Leake, the company said it would continue to appeal the case. 'We continue to believe that the trial court committed significant errors by allowing inadmissible and prejudicial testimony into the courtroom which poisoned the jury against the company,' the statement read. Bayer is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take its appeal of a 2024 Missouri case awarding $1.25 million in damages to John Durnell of St. Louis. The Eastern District Court of Appeals upheld that decision in February and on April 1 the Missouri Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal. The U.S. Supreme Court has given parties until June 9 to file arguments on whether it should accept the case. 'The overwhelming weight of science as well as the assessments of the EPA and leading health regulators and scientists worldwide that support the safety and non-carcinogenicity of Roundup and we will continue to defend our products in court,' the company stated. Bayer has paid out at least $10 billion for jury awards and settlements and earlier this year said it had an additional $6 billion set aside. That fund will be depleted quickly if decisions like the one upheld Tuesday are allowed to stand and the company suffers more losses like a $2.1 billion judgment handed down in March by a jury in Georgia. According to a report from Reuters, Roundup produced $2.8 billion in revenue for Bayer in 2024. The bill protecting glyphosate from litigation passed the Georgia legislature a few weeks after the $2.1 billion award. Gov. Mike Kehoe, at a news conference after lawmakers adjourned earlier this month, blamed defeat of the Missouri legislation on trial attorneys who have made 'tens of millions of dollars' off the lawsuits. 'If, for some reason, that particular product is not produced anymore in the United States, farmers are still going to need that type of product, that type of weed control, and so that, glyphosate I think is what it's called,will be produced somewhere,' Kehoe said. 'And if it is, it won't be produced in this country, and farmers will not have the same protections and liability recourse back on the companies who make it, if it's made in China or somewhere overseas.' Bayer is also being sued by shareholders in a class action lawsuit over its decision to spend $68 billion to acquire Monsanto in 2018. The lawsuit alleges Bayer misled investors over the risks of the acquisition and failed to properly perform due diligence before buying Monsanto, When Bayer acquired Monsanto in June 2018, its stock price was about $30 a share. On Tuesday afternoon, the company's shares were selling for $7 apiece. In the appeal of the Cole County decision, Bayer argued that Green made numerous errors in the trial and in rulings on post-trial motions. The company's lawyers' main points challenged the admissibility of testimony about a case over EPA evaluations of glyphosate; surprise findings from an expert; the use made of medical billing records; and whether the punitive damages were unconstitutionally duplicative. At the heart of most glyphosate cases, and the target of legislation, is the label and whether it includes a proper notice that glyphosate may cause cancer. 'The misconduct complained about in the complaints in the three California cases Monsanto relies on, and in (one plaintiff's) petition, includes allegations that despite scientific evidence that Roundup was carcinogenic, Monsanto continued to sell Roundup, and that Monsanto failed to warn of the dangerous effects of using Roundup,' Judge Cynthia Martin wrote in the Western District opinion delivered Tuesday. In a discussion of whether the punitive damage award should have been reduced more, Martin wrote that 'Monsanto's degree of reprehensibility was high.' Martin noted that the evidence shows that while the EPA has registered Roundup 'for sale since 1974, Monsanto has been aware since 1985 that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, has the potential to cause cancer.' Each of the plaintiffs suffered damages because Monsanto sold a product that was 'unreasonably dangerous when used as reasonably anticipated' without altering the labeling to provide a warning. 'Monsanto's awareness,' Martin wrote, 'of studies demonstrating the possibility of a causal relationship between glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, and cancer, particularly NHL, and then its decision to double down on its defense of Roundup in lieu of changing the product's formulation or adding a warning label regarding the risk posed by Roundup demonstrates, at best, Monsanto's indifference to or reckless disregard of the health of its customers.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Yahoo
Community support hub and foodbank awarded £315k
A community hub says an award of a £315,000 National Lottery grant will keep it running for three more years. The Southend Vineyard Storehouse, which started 20 years ago, said it would have closed had it not been given the money. The hub, on the Queensway estate in Coleman Street, has a community cafe, warm safe space and foodbank. Storehouse manager Marie Bryant said the grant would have a "huge" impact on the lives of people in the area and claimed they had helped 18,000 people last year. "I've put my heart into this project, the money means the world to us," she said. "It would have been heartbreaking if we had to close; it is such a huge part of people's lives. "For many, it is the only place they come to once a week." The money will mainly fund the rental for the building and recruit new staff. Ms Bryant added: "Now that we can recruit more staff, it means we have set up a rough sleepers session on Tuesdays. "We're also now looking at doing cookery lessons." The Storehouse is staffed by five part-time staff and 15 volunteers. It was founded by Southend Vineyard Church who felt the community was struggling to provide vital support to local families in terms of having an impact on loneliness, isolation, homelessness and poverty. Natalie Condon is a former volunteer, who became a member of staff "The Storehouse was a pivotal help in my recovery from addiction in giving me somewhere to go and something to help me," she said. "My life has changed very much for the better and I now love working here to give back help supporting other people." Ms Bryant emphasised how much the community hub had helped people and was a key asset to the local community. "It has literally turned people's lives around," she said. Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X. Southend Vineyard Church
