Annual Food Drive Kick-off

Posted: November 9, 2023 at 3:15 pm

We CAN Make a Difference

 McMinnville, Tenn., November 9, 2023 – Ben Lomand Connect is kicking off its annual holiday food drive for local food pantries in its service territory.   Along with the food items, Ben Lomand Connect matches with a monetary donation of fifty cents per item up to $5,000.   Since its inception, BLC has collected close to 6,900 food items and contributed more than $3,300 to area pantries in Warren, White, Coffee, Grundy, Van Buren, and Cumberland counties.

Greg Smartt, Ben Lomand Connect CEO, states, “We are humbled and honored to play a small part in helping individuals and families struggling this Christmas and New Year season. It is important to us to help give back to our service areas.  Our employees and the customers we serve consistently respond to this canned food drive and other needs in our communities throughout the year. The unbelievable work that volunteers do at each of the local food pantries in our area goes mostly unnoticed throughout the year. We hope our canned food drive items and monetary donations will help shine a light on these individuals and places. It is a blessing for this company to be one of the caretakers of this special part of the world we call home.”

Non-perishable food items can be brought to these Ben Lomand offices: 311 N. Chancery St. McMinnville, 205 O’Brien Drive Crossville, 502 Ben Lomand Dr. Sparta, 67 Main St. Tracy City, Citizens Tri-County Bank 489 Springs St. Spencer, and 1335 McArthur St. Manchester.

Ben Lomand Connect began serving customers on October 1, 1954, to provide local telephone service to rural middle Tennessee. The cooperative has grown to over 32,000 broadband connections with 21,000 phone lines servicing residential and business customers throughout our area. BLC also offers Managed IT, video (BLTV), security (Ben Lomand Security/Arlo Cameras), Managed Wi-Fi (Ben Lomand Home), and a mobile medical security service (Secure Everywhere). Over the last three decades, Ben Lomand Connect has laid over 4,200 miles of fiber throughout their area.