Food City will once again host the annual Johnia Berry Toy Drive.  This marks the ninth year the retailer has hosted the memorial drive, which began in 2007.   

“Johnia was extremely passionate about helping children and Food City is proud to be part of the annual Johnia Berry Toy Drive, which donates thousands of toys to needy children in our area each year,” said Steven C. Smith, Food City president and chief executive officer. 

The drive will kick-off on November 6th and continue through December 7th.  Specially marked collection containers will be located at area Food City locations throughout the Tri-Cities.  The toys are scheduled to be distributed on December 7th, one day after the anniversary of Johnia’s death. 

The Berry Family have selected a number of local agencies to receive the toys, including Haven of Mercy, Tri-State Children’s Home, Safe Passage Women’s Shelter, area schools and many others.

“We would like to thank our loyal customers and associates for their tremendous generosity and support of the toy drive, as well as our media partner, News Channel 11, WJHL-TV,” adds Smith.

Headquartered in Abingdon, Virginia, K-VA-T Food Stores, Inc. (the parent company) operates 106 retail food outlets throughout the tri-state regions of Southeast Kentucky, Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee.  The company recently purchased 29 BI-LO supermarkets (including 21 pharmacies) in Chattanooga, Tennessee and North Georgia and just completed the process of converting them to the Food City format.