Red Gold and Kroger to Make 10,000 Pound Donation to Mid-Ohio Food Bank
Orestes, Indiana (Jan. 19, 2009) – The country's largest tomato cans will be unveiled today for the first time anywhere near downtown Columbus on a rare, oversized 3-D billboard. Capable of holding the contents of over 100,000 normal store cans, the spectacular display comes to town care of Red Gold Tomatoes, the company known for canning tomatoes within 24 hours of being harvested from their Indiana and Ohio farm fields.
> Watch the Billboard Announcement (ABC6, Columbus, OH)
> See a larger image of the billboard.
> Watch Video of 10,000 lb Donation to Mid-OH Food Bank (NBC4, Columbus, OH)
> Watch the Cooking Demonstration (Fox28, Columbus, OH)
> Learn more about Red Gold by listening to the podcast (Columbus, OH Foodcast)
The unveiling of the cans near the intersection of Spring Street and North Fourth Street – coupled with oversized vines and tomatoes – also comes with a donation of 10,000 pounds of tomatoes to local Mid-Ohio Food Bank next week.
“We wanted to do something dramatic,” said Greg Metzger, Director of Marketing at Red Gold. “We thought that oversized tomatoes and vines were a great way to reinforce the big tomato taste of Red Gold Brand canned tomatoes. And, even more importantly, making a donation to the Mid-Ohio Food Bank helps needy families in the Columbus area.”
Together, the volume of the “big” cans totals 1,617,093 cubic inches. A typical 14.5-ounce can of Red Gold Tomatoes has a volume of 30.9 cubic inches. Minneapolis-based advertising firm Clarity Coverdale Fury, an expert in such spectacular billboards, created the sign.
“The board itself took more than 9 weeks to construct,” said Rob Rankin, VP Director of Brand Development. “While this is not the first 3-D board in the country, it is relatively uncommon given the difficulty and time necessary to create such a display.”
In addition:
- There are 5 tomatoes: 5 feet tall by 13 feet around, each weighing about 150 lbs.
- There are 140 feet of tomato vines
- The leaves on the tomato vine are 8 feet tall by 4 feet wide
- Each Red Gold can is 16 1/2 feet tall by 12 1/2 feet wide
- If the two giant cans were filled with Red Gold petite diced tomatoes, that would make enough salsa to serve over 400,000 people
The board will be up through February.
Red Gold is a premier full-line tomato processing company with its corporate headquarters located in Orestes, Indiana. Red Gold produces premium quality canned tomatoes and tomato-based products for the retail, foodservice, private label, and club channels of distribution. The Red Gold family of consumer brands includes Red Gold, Redpack, Tuttorosso, and Sacramento. Exceptional quality and operational excellence are the shared values that contributed to the employee-created mission statement: “To produce the freshest, best tasting tomato products in the world.” Visit http://www.redgoldtomatoes.com/ to learn more about Tomato Country and for delicious tomato recipes.