Chiquita sticker on banana

Chiquita Brands International has announced its support for the Houston Food Bank's 24th annual Gift of Produce drive, with a donation of more than 17,000 pounds of fresh bananas.

The Houston Food Bank distributes 65m pounds of food each year to 137,000 people each week, with the Gift of Produce event, which was founded in 1986, seeing produce distributed to Houston Food Bank member hunger relief agencies.

The move is the latest in a series of offerings by the fresh produce multinational this year, providing people in need with healthy, nutritious products totaling more than US$4.6m in retail value.

'This is part of our corporate social responsibility commitment in action,' said Fernando Aguirre, chairman and chief executive officer. 'All our employees are proud to share Chiquita's high-quality produce with people in need of nutritious food, especially during this season of giving.'

Chiquita's corporate giving efforts focus on programmes and organisations that support the health and wellbeing of the communities where its employees live and work.