City Market New Castle has vehemently denied the assertion that it has “quit supporting the community” following an unfavorable letter from an area nonprofit.

In that Aug. 6 letter to the editor, Nanci Limbach, executive director of the Pauline S. Schneegas Wildlife Foundation, penned, “A year ago [City Market New Castle] stopped allowing their produce people to contribute outdated produce to our Wildlife Foundation to feed our numerous animals.”

Limbach, in an interview Thursday, said City Market New Castle stopped donating to the Wildlife Foundation following new store management.

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“I’m still getting [produce] from the other City Markets,” Limbach said, citing how the City Market in Rifle donated several boxes of outdated produce to the Wildlife Foundation just last week.

“They’re the only store that doesn’t give it to us.” Limbach added of the New Castle City Market location.

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Located near the town of Silt, the Pauline S. Schneegas Wildlife Foundation accepts all species of wildlife brought in by public agencies as well as private citizens including federally listed, threatened and endangered wildlife. Limbach founded the nonprofit wildlife rehabilitation center in 1984 whose mission has remained to provide professional care to injured and orphaned wildlife.

In her letter, Limbach went on to say that the City Market in New Castle’s management had also quit helping LIFT-UP, Mountain Valley Developmental and several senior food programs, a claim City Market Spokesperson Kelli McGannon said simply was not true.

“If it’s still edible but no longer sellable we absolutely need to donate it, and we do that in every one of our City Market stores,” McGannon said in an interview Thursday of the donations that go to Food Bank of the Rockies and locally to LIFT-UP Garfield.

According to McGannon, since Jan. 1, City Market’s New Castle location had generated over 8,000 meals through its donations.

“We do what we call Zero Hunger Food Rescue at every location,” McGannon explained of the social impact plan that seeks eliminating waste across the Kroger company by 2025. “Produce that is no longer edible can be composted. We do have composting at our New Castle City Market.”

Although not certain whether the Rifle location composted, McGannon’s guess was that it did not and as a result was still able to donate to the Wildlife Foundation.

“Rather than have this become waste, we allow them to use it for animal feed,” McGannon said of when composting was not available. “We are committed to helping find a solution to ending hunger in every community. I am disappointed that this letter was written and I am sure the produce was really important to [the Wildlife Foundation] but our first priority has to be to humans, it just does.”

mabennett@postindependent.com