Food Lion joined forces with its customers to provide more than 10 million meals to help address food insecurity through the annual Food Lion Feeds Gala Apple Bag campaign.
The initiative benefits the Food Lion Feeds Charitable Foundation, a philanthropic arm of Food Lion. The foundation will award grants to support local hunger relief organizations to help ensure access to nutritious food, provide nutritional education and job skills training programs across the omnichannel retailer’s 10-state operating area. Food Lion Feeds was founded in 2014 by Food Lion to address food insecurity in the towns and cities it serves.
“Food Lion is committed to nourishing our neighbors and caring for our communities,” said Kevin Durkee, Manager, Food Lion Feeds, Food Lion. “Since the Gala Apple Bag campaign was introduced in 2014, our customers have joined us to help provide the equivalent of more than 42 million meals to support our neighbors facing food insecurity. We stand by our community feeding agencies to ensure access to nutritious food and resources so people can get on their feet again. Campaigns like this demonstrate the power of people coming together to help those in need.”
Immediately following the Gala Apple Bag initiative on Oct. 2, Food Lion launched a campaign to raise money to assist communities impacted by Hurricane Helene.
Through Oct. 30, Food Lion will match customer donations made at the register or online up to $1 million. The roundup campaign will also be directed to the Food Lion Feeds Charitable Foundation, which will award grants to hunger relief organizations for recovery and rebuilding efforts.
The $1 million Hurricane Helene Relief campaign match is in addition to donations totaling $500,000 to emergency relief organization World Central Kitchen and to feeding agencies that mobilized support to help those affected by the tragedy.
Established in 2001, the Food Lion Feeds Charitable Foundation provides financial support for programs and organizations dedicated to eliminating hunger. The foundation awards grants twice annually to benefit more than 500 local feeding partners, in addition to supporting capital campaign gifts to food bank partners. These hunger relief organizations provide health education and job skills training, as well as help clients access nutritious food.
Through Food Lion Feeds, Food Lion has helped provide more than 1.2 billion meals to individuals and families since 2014 and has committed to donating 1.5 billion meals** by 2025. For more information on Food Lion Feeds’ commitment to ending hunger, visit foodlion.com/feeds.
*Through the Gala Apple Bag campaign, $0.50 (monetary equivalent of five meals) from each bag purchased will be provided to Food Lion Feeds Charitable Foundation to award grants to local feeding partners. Food Lion guaranteed a minimum donation of $200,000 (monetary equivalent of 2 million meals) from Sept. 18 – Oct. 1, 2024.
**Food Lion Feeds helps to address food insecurity by providing product, financial and equipment donations; disaster relief and recovery efforts; investing in capital campaign support for feeding agencies; and volunteer hours by associates. These investments are converted to a meal equivalent based on various meal equivalent formulas.