Newport News Student’s Art On Food Lion Bags

Salisbury, N.C.

The next time you go to Food Lion bag, ask for a reusable bag that features artwork by Sierra Harris of Newport News.

     Harris designed a lion with a blue and green mane on reusable grocery bags that cost 99 cents each. Harris, 14, is a sophomore in Woodside High School’s Art and Communications Magnet Program. One of four runners-up in Food Lion’s Roar Against Hunger Design-A-Bag Contest, she said her aunt, a Food Lion store manager encouraged her to enter the contest.

  She changed her design four times, sent in her design, and months later received part of her prize,   an iPad Mini, in the mail.

   She was also invited to a bag-signing event held June 13 at the Food Lion store on Oriana Road. Soft-spoken, Sierra said the experience was nerve-wracking. Food Lion also donated $1,000 in her honor to the Virginia Peninsula Foodbank.

   “I didn’t know it would feed so many people,” she said, explaining that the donation covered the cost of 4,000 meals.

   This philanthropy is part of Food Lion Feeds, a cause that fights hunger in the company’s 10-state operating area. So far, the company website reports the year-old cause has provided more than 81 million meals. Food Lion’s goal is to provide 500 million meals by 2020.

   Food Lion spokeswoman Tara Robertson said the company will donate five meals for each reusable grocery bag sold, providing about 1 million meals. The company printed 240,000 of the reusable grocery bags, and about half of them have already been purchased, she said.

   Robertson, who helped coordinate the design contest, said approximately 2,500 young artists submitted entries. Employees in the corporate office judged the work, and Robertson said that “Sierra’s artwork really caught our eye.”

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   Sierra is no stranger to art competitions – she’s been entering her artwork for more than five years and has collected prizes along the way. “I really just take any chance I’ve got to get my name out there,” she said.