Carter Outdoor is doing its part to help fight hunger in Lee County. The company has donated two billboards to promote Community Cooperative Ministries Inc. (CCMI) programs and services as well as donations to the local non-profit agency.

The billboards are located at Colonial Blvd. near Treeline Blvd. in Fort Myers, just outside Lehigh, and just north of the Edison Bridge on Business 41 in North Fort Myers

“I continue to find hope in the ways local companies are stepping up to help us fight hunger,” said Sarah Owen, CEO of CCMI.

“These billboards will spread the message of the vital work CCMI does and hopefully help bring in donations and support for their programs and services,” said Charles Cockrill, sales and marketing manager for Carter Outdoor. “As an independent, local company we are proud to be able to offer this pro bono service to such a worthwhile cause.”

The full color billboards, designed by Bryan Chaikin, principal designer of D of G Design & Advertising Inc., said, “So many ways to eliminate hunger in our community, doing nothing isn’t one of them.”

The boards feature a family of four holding cans of food. CCMI’s logo, phone number and Web site are also displayed on the bottom of the boards.

CCMI is the umbrella agency for the Soup Kitchen and Food Pantry, Meals on Wheels, Senior Transportation, the Montessori Preschool of Dunbar and Family and Homeless Services. CCMI serves Fort Myers and the greater Lee County area, including Bonita Springs, Cape Coral and Lehigh Acres.

The Soup Kitchen serves a noontime meal six days a week to men, women, and children in a traditional soup kitchen setting. In addition, CCMI prepares and delivers nutritious packaged meals and beverages for the homebound hungry, offers a food pantry and mobile food pantries that provide emergency groceries to families in need, serves two nutritious meals a day for the children in their Montessori Preschool and oversees a backpack program for local schoolchildren who would otherwise receive little to no food on weekends.

According to Cockrill, the billboards went up in mid June and will remain at least until the end of the year. The in-kind value is estimated at over $18,000.

Since 1956, Carter Outdoor has served the South Florida markets with principal offices in Fort Myers and Miami.