Food Lion on Monday pledged to donate 500 million meals to families in need by the end of 2020 through its new community relations platform—Food Lion Feeds, which will focus on hunger relief. To mark the launch of Food Lion Feeds and kick off its new commitment, the grocer will donate one million meals in five days through June 13 as part of a Week of Giving.
“When I was a store manager, I saw firsthand the tough choices our customers are sometimes forced to make to feed their families,” said Food Lion President Beth Newlands Campbell. “In difficult times, many people have to decide whether to pay rent, buy groceries or purchase gasoline to get to work, because they simply cannot do all three. At Food Lion, we believe no one should have to choose between dinner and paying rent or gasoline and buying groceries. That’s why we’re so passionate about our renewed focus on ending hunger and working to make the lines shorter at local feeding agencies through Food Lion Feeds.”
Food Lion also will partner with its customers to help end hunger by launching a special Food Lion Feeds reusable bag for sale in its stores. With the sale of each bag through June 30, Food Lion will donate five meals to local food banks, in partnership with Feeding America. Feeding America is the nation’s largest hunger-relief organization comprised of a network of more than 200 member local food banks.
“Food Lion Feeds is our commitment to help end the choices families are forced to make when they are hungry,” said Newlands Campbell. “Although the initiative launches this week, it will come to life year-round in our stores, starting with the reusable bag program. We want our customers and our communities to know that we stand for hunger relief and that they can count on Food Lion every day.”
Food Lion’s Week of Giving kicked off Monday with the donation of 2,500 “Summers Without Hunger” food boxes that were each packed with 15 products for breakfast, lunch and dinner by Food Lion associates at the company’s headquarters in Salisbury, N.C. The food boxes, donated to Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina and Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina, will provide more than 30,000 meals to families in need in greater Charlotte, N.C., as well as the greater Winston-Salem/Greensboro/High Point, N.C., area this summer.
Throughout the rest of the week, Food Lion will make four additional donations across its markets as part of its one-million-meal donation in five days, focusing on a different aspect of hunger each day:
• Today, Food Lion will partner with the Food Bank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore to provide food to families in need, especially veterans, in the greater Norfolk, Va., area, who are struggling with hunger.
• On Wednesday, the grocer will join forces with the Maryland Food Bank to visit an elementary school in the Baltimore, Md., area to provide food to children who receive meals at school during the week but are at risk of hunger on the weekends and during the summer.
• On Thursday, Food Lion associates in the greater Myrtle Beach, S.C., community will distribute meals to senior citizens in need through a partnership with the Lowcountry Food Bank.
• Food Lion will end the week Friday by donating produce to families who may not have access to fresh, healthy food in the greater Raleigh, N.C., market, by partnering with the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina.
At each event, local Food Lion associates, joined by Newlands Campbell and Food Lion SVP of Retail Operations Greg Finchum, as well as other Food Lion leaders, will distribute food and support local feeding agencies to help eliminate hunger this summer.