Food Lion Feeds, customers join to nourish neighbors
With its customers' support, Food Lion Feeds launched its three-weeklong Food Lion Feeds Orange Bag campaign to help address food insecurity.
Food Lion Feeds kickstarted the campaign by helping provide a minimum of 2 million meals to neighbors experiencing hunger through its annual initiative. Since the campaign began in 2019, customers have helped provide more than 7 million meals through the sale of specially marked orange bags and cash donations.
The campaign runs from Feb. 28 – March 19 and benefits Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, and local partner food banks throughout Food Lion’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.
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To support the effort, customers can purchase specially marked orange bags or contribute cash donations while checking out in-store or online via Food Lion To Go. In this campaign, customers can use the digital keypads at checkout to donate a specific dollar amount or round up their purchases to support the effort.
Food Lion Feeds will help provide five meals for the sale of every bag to Feeding America and its partner food banks, up to 2 million meals. The total donation to each local food bank will be based on the number of eligible bagged oranges sold in each food bank’s service area. Additionally, 100% of all cash donations will directly support Feeding America and its partner food banks.
“Our neighbors deserve access to nutritious food, so when our customers purchase a bag of oranges, they help nourish individuals and their families within their community who are experiencing hunger,” said Kevin Durkee, manager of Food Lion Feeds at Food Lion. “At Food Lion, we believe no one should have to choose between dinner and rent or gas and groceries. Working together, we help more families get the food they deserve, setting them up for success.”
The Orange Bag campaign is one of many efforts Food Lion Feeds leads during the spring. In addition to this campaign, Food Lion Feeds launched its fifth season of Score to Give More in November. It teamed up with 54 collegiate basketball programs, including 16 women’s teams. Through this collaboration to address food insecurity, Food Lion Feeds will help provide 100 meals (up to 30,000 meals per team) for every free throw made. The effort benefits Feeding America partner food banks throughout Food Lion’s 10-state operating area. The initiative is amplified during the CIAA and ACC basketball tournaments, when Food Lion Feeds presents checks to its community partner food banks benefiting from the meal donations. The amounts are based on the number of free throws made by each participating college.
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Through Food Lion Feeds, Food Lion has helped to provide more than 1 billion meals to individuals and families since 2014 and has committed to donate 1.5 billion meals by 2025.