Giant raises more than $1.4M to address food insecurity in local school districts

The retailer raised more than $1.4 million to address the issue of childhood hunger throughout local public school districts in the communities it serves.

3/18/2022

Giant is working to ensure food insecurity at its local school districts becomes a thing of the past.

Recently, the Carlisle, Pa.-based company announced that it has raised more than $1.4 million to address the issue of childhood hunger throughout local public school districts in the communities it serves.

The donation was announced during a presentation at the DuBois Area Middle School in DuBois, Pa., as the company presented the school district with a donation of more than $8,400 and picnic tables.

In addition, team members also showed their support by volunteering to prepare snack bags for students, the company said.

“The link between good nutrition and a child’s ability to learn is crucial for their success in school; kids have a hard time focusing on academics if they are hungry,” Jessica Groves, community impact manager at Giant said. “Thanks to our generous customers, through the Feeding School Kids initiative, we can directly impact our local school food programs and do our part towards helping to eliminate hunger for the youngest members of our community.”

Giant was able to raise the funds for the donation through a campaign that invited customers at Giant, Martin’s and Giant Heirloom Markets to round up their grocery purchases to the nearest dollar to convert their Choice points into a donation for the local public school’ food programs.

The company, which donated $250,000 to the program, will provide the donation through its Feeding School Kids Initiative, which will allow school districts to use the funds to support such meal programs as outstanding student meal debt, expanding food distribution programs, creating on-campus food pantries and supplying extra weekend meals, the retailer said.

“While the District is fortunate to be able to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students, we realize that two meals is not enough nourishment for our neediest students,” Wendy Benton, superintendent, DuBois Area School District said. “Supplemental food and donations though Giant help us to ensure that our students have access to nutritious food outside of the school day. Together, we can meet the nutritional needs of our students and ensure that no child is hungry in the DuBois Area School District.”

Fifteen school districts received the funds from the Feeding School Kids Initiative, including:

Allentown School District, Pa., which received $16,701;
Berkeley County Schools, W. Va., which received $19,309;
Bethlehem Area School District, Pa., which received $18,949;
Carlisle Area School District, Pa., which received $18,277;
Centennial School District, Pa., which received $18,012;
Central Bucks School District, Pa., which received $21,600;
Central Dauphin School District, Pa., which received $21,489;
Frederick County Public Schools, Md., which received $24,687;
Mechanicsburg Area School District, Pa., which received $15,836;
North Penn School District, Pa., which received $23,263;
The School District of Haverford Township, Pa., which received $19,855;
The School District of Philadelphia, Pa., which received $95,252;
State College Area School District, Pa., which received $19,427;
Washington County Public Schools, Md., which received $23,100; and
West Chester Area School District, Pa., which received $48,782

Related Topics