Rent-to-own News - National TV Sales donates 10,000 lbs of food to needy Missouri families

When Lebanon, Missouri-based National TV Sales and Rental owner Kathy Windsor read what  a heavy toll the economy was taking on a local holiday food drive, the wheels began to turn.

She "got the Rolodex to workin", started making phone calls to wholesale grocers and in a matter of just five days, her company purchased 10,000 pounds of food, enough to feed 500 needy Lebanon-area families where before there had been food enough for only three families.

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National TV Sales and Rental employees last night delivered truckloads of food to Free Store Ministries -- a local  faith-based initiative. For the past several years, the organization has spearheaded the holiday food basket drive. But with donations down significantly, the mission needed a small miracle to meet its 500 family goal this year.

"I nearly drove off the road when Kathy called and told me what they had done," said Amber Meredith, Free Store Ministries executive director. "In the 11 years I've been doing this I have never seen a company step up and help out at this level before. Her understanding of the situation is just amazing and so genuine, it really, really touched me."

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Around a dozen company employees this morning are helping to assemble the holiday dinner baskets alongside Free Store volunteers. Families are picking up the dinner boxes at the Lebanon community center today where they will receive a generous holiday feast including a ham, oranges, potatoes, three cans of vegetables, butter, a can of condensed milk, hot rolls and a pumpkin or pecan pie.

"With this donation, our goal was for all children and their families to have the same memory of Christmas my children had and that I had," Windsor said, "to be in a warm house eating a good meal. We wanted to give these families a hand up, not a hand out. It had to be done and we were glad to do it."

National TV Sales and Rental operates 17 rent-to-own stores in Missouri.