USA Food Bank Receives Tons Of Tuna From Chicken Of The Sea Singing Contestff

By Michelle Paynter

One Savannah woman used her musical talents to “reel” in the fish, so to speak.

A few months ago WTOC introduced people to Patti Newton. She wrote a jingle and entered it in the Chicken of the Sea jingle jam contest last fall. While she didn’t win, sometimes second place is good enough. Newton was awarded $25,000 worth of tuna.

More than 60,000 people voted for Newton including the Memorial Day School students who helped unload the tuna.

This morning it took an assembly line of students and volunteers to unload five pallets of tuna at the America’s Second Harvest food bank in Savannah.

Inside the boxes were cans of Chicken by the Sea and some ready made tuna meals, food that will help feed many families in these tough economic times. “It’s wonderful,” said Newton. “It couldn’t go to a better cause.”

“I’m so excited,” she said. “I never thought it would come to this. It was a little embarrassing putting myself out there singing, but it was for a good cause.”

Executive director of America's Second Harvest of the Coastal Empire, Mary Jane Crouch, said she couldn't be happier.

“We came in second against other places like LA, Atlanta, New York and our community voted enough that we still came in second,” Crouch said. “I don’t think I went anywhere where people didn’t say, ‘I’m voting, I’m voting, I’m trying to get you tuna’. It’s nice people can put that together and know what they can do to help us.”

They are helping to feed families who have nowhere else to turn. The first place winner in the jingle jam was a woman from Oklahoma.


Tuna from Jingle Jam contest