Food Lion Leading Grocery Industry In Helping Red Cross Save Lives.

Business Editors

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 10, 2000

The following was released today by the American Red Cross:

Food Lion has joined with the Red Cross to help save lives this hurricane season by distributing hurricane preparedness information to families through its stores in hurricane-prone communities.

In a preparedness initiative sponsored by AT&T, nearly 200 Food Lion stores in the most hurricane-vulnerable communities in the Carolinas and Virginia distributed more than two million American Red Cross hurricane preparedness tip cards to their customers.

Last month, a Harris Poll of 17.3 million households located in 177 counties along the seacoast from Maine to Texas found only 41 percent have an evacuation plan. Food Lion is working with the Red Cross to improve this number by providing hurricane preparedness information to more than 2 million families through its stores in hurricane-prone communities throughout North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

"The memory of Hurricane Floyd and the suffering it caused is still very fresh in all of our minds," said Dr. John Clizbe, vice president of the American Red Cross Disaster Services. "The American Red Cross has joined with Food Lion & AT&T during this most active period of hurricane season, to help ensure residents in highly-prone hurricane areas are better prepared."

In addition to this valuable educational service, Food Lion is encouraging customers to support the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund through its Your Help Counts program. Customers can make donations in all 1,250 Food Lion store locations, or through a Red Cross link on their web site, www.FoodLion.com. Funds ensure the American Red Cross can provide immediate relief to disaster victims.

For more information about how your company can join with the American Red Cross to help save lives in your community, contact Casey Minix at 202-639-3219 or [e-mail].

All American Red Cross disaster assistance is free, made possible by voluntary donations of time and money from the American people. To help the victims of disasters, contributions can be made to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund by calling 800/HELP-NOW or 800/257-7575 (Spanish). Internet users can make a secure online credit card contribution by visiting www.RedCross.org. Contributions to the Disaster Relief Fund may also be sent to your local American Red Cross chapter or to the American Red Cross, P.O. Box 37243, Washington, D.C. 20013.

The American Red Cross is dedicated to helping make families and communities safer at home and around the world. A humanitarian service organization currently operating on a budget of $2.3 billion, the American Red Cross annually mobilizes relief to the victims of more than 60,000 disasters nationwide and has been the primary supplier of lifesaving blood and blood products in the United States for more than 50 years. The American Red Cross also trains more than 11.7 million people in vital lifesaving skills, provides direct health services to 2.5 million people, provides locally relevant community services to more than 24 million people, assists international disaster and conflict victims in more than 20 countries, and transmits more than 1.4 million emergency messages to members of the U.S. Armed Forces and their families. Dr. Bernadine Healy is president and CEO of the American Red Cross.