Food Lion teams with CPG brands to fight hunger

With many families and individuals struggling from the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, Food Lion has launched a customer donation campaign called “Summers Without Hunger” that’s supported by six of the grocery chain's suppliers.

Through the initiative, announced Wednesday, Food Lion shoppers can make a $5 donation to Feeding America and 30 of its member food banks located across supermarket chain’s 10-state market area in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic. The campaign is supported by Campbells, Hormel, Kellogg’s, PepsiCo, Seald Sweet and Tyson, which each will donate up to 250,000 units of products to alleviate hunger in communities served by Food Lion.

“At Food Lion, nourishing our neighbors is at the core of everything we do, and we’re excited to offer customers who are able to join with us in the fight against hunger another way to care for the towns and cities we all call home,” Jennifer Blanchard, director of community relations for Food Lion, said in a statement. “We sincerely appreciate these six great vendors for partnering with us to help meet the increased need many of our neighbors are facing. We’re looking forward to partnering with these vendors and our customers to make a big difference in the lives of our neighbors in need.”

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To participate in the campaign, which runs to June 30, customers take a backpack-shaped hangtag from the Summers Without Hunger display in a Food Lion store and hand it to the cashier at checkout. They also can do so online by selecting the item while placing their Food Lion To Go home delivery or store pickup order at shop.foodlion.com. Food Lion Feeds then will donate that $5 to the member food bank closest to that store and to Feeding America.

Each $5 donation made by Food Lion shoppers triggers a product donation from each of the participating vendors. To help kick off the campaign, each of the six participating brands made big product contributions to several local food banks this week, including with Campbells donating 100,000 units of Lance crackers, peanuts and popcorn; Hormel donating 48,000 units of Hormel Chunk Chicken; Kellogg’s donating 250,000 Nutri-Grain bars, cereals and other foods; Pepsi donating 100,000 bottles of Aquafina water; Seald Sweet donating 100,000 clementine oranges; and Tyson donating 100,000 units of Tyson chicken.

Food Lion noted that each $1 donated helps provide at least 10 meals secured by Feeding America for local member food banks. Through the Summers Without Hunger effort, the Ahold Delhaize USA chain, which has more than 1,000 stores, guarantees a minimum donation of $100,000, or the monetary equivalent of 1 million meals.

Related:Ahold Delhaize USA donates $10 million relief package to local communities

“The Feeding America network continues to experience an increase in demand for food assistance resulting from the COVID-19 crisis. We are thankful to Food Lion, its suppliers and consumers for their generous support of member food banks across the Southeast,” stated Lauren Biedron, vice president of corporate partnerships at Feeding America. “Their product and monetary contributions will help make a difference in the lives of families who may not know where they will find their next meal.”  

Through Food Lion Feeds, Salisbury, N.C.-based Food Lion has donated more than 500 million meals to individuals and families since 2014 and has pledged to donate another 1 billion meals by 2025.

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