Walmart, Walmart Foundation Announce $2 Billion Hunger Relief Initiative
Walmart, Walmart Foundation Announce $2 Billion Hunger Relief Initiative
The Walmart Foundation and its parent company, Walmart, have announced the launch of a five-year, $2 billion initiative to help end hunger in America.
The Fighting Hunger Together initiative includes four key components: donating more than 1.1 billion pounds of food from Walmart stores, distribution centers, and Sam's Club locations; awarding $250 million in grants to hunger relief organizations at the national, state, and local levels; mobilizing Walmart associates and customers to support hunger relief efforts; and collaborating with government agencies, food manufacturers, and other corporations that are fighting hunger to increase their impact and reach. Through the cash and in-kind gifts, Walmart expects to provide more than one billion meals to families in need.
The initiative will award $8 million to help U.S. foodbanks improve their capacity, including $6 million to Feeding America to purchase sixty refrigerated trucks, and $10 million to help ensure that children across the country are fed healthy meals during the school year and summer months, including $2 million to the National Recreation and Park Association to provide two million meals through its summer feeding program.
According to a November 2009 United States Department of Agriculture report, U.S. hunger rates are at their highest level since 1995, with nearly 15 percent of households lacking access to an adequate supply of nutritious food.
"Increasingly, we see opportunities to use our scale and reach to solve challenges in our communities. This is one of those times," said Walmart vice chair Eduardo Castro-Wright. "By working together, we believe we can reach a day where no individual in this country has to go to bed hungry or worry if there will be food to put on the table tomorrow."
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