Communities Unite in the Spirit of Giving to Help Local Food Pantries Win Part of $1.5 Million in Grants from Walmart
On Monday, December 15, 2014, Walmart announced the 75 food pantry winners of the Food Pantry Holiday Makeover campaign that will each receive a $20,000 grant for facility makeovers. Over the past two weeks, communities nationwide came together to vote at walmart.com/holidaymakeover for their local food pantry to win a grant. The grants are being made to help the winning food pantries, such as the Chesapeake Cares Food Pantry in Huntingtown, MD, renovate their facilities and purchase essential equipment such as new refrigerators, ovens, stoves, storage units, and even refrigerated trucks to help them better serve families in need.
“We are humbled by the turnout of support Chesapeake Cares Food Pantry has received throughout the campaign, and we’re so excited to be able to use the funds to expand our facility. It will help us improve the food distribution area to make it much easier for people in need to access food. We’ll also be able to expand our food storage area, allowing us to provide healthier foods so more families can eat nutritious meals,” said Rev. Robert P. Hahn, Senior Pastor Chesapeake Church, Chesapeake Cares Food Pantry. “We thank Walmart for their generosity and their commitment to reach out to local food pantries, the people who are on the front lines of this fight. Every food pantry in the running was worthy and we all stand shoulder to shoulder in combating the truly solvable problem in our country: hunger.”
The Food Pantry Holiday Makeover campaign launched at a time when food pantries across the country are preparing for their busiest time of year and facing high rates of need, with more than 49 million Americans experiencing food insecurity in 2013. Meeting this need requires food pantries to not only have food on hand, but be well-equipped to safely store, prepare, and transport the food that will ultimately end up on a family’s table.
“We are so thankful for everyone who voted and for the communities that came together to support their local hunger relief agencies,” said Kathleen McLaughlin, president of the Walmart Foundation and senior vice president of Walmart Sustainability. “Today, the dedicated food pantry staff and volunteers who work so hard to fight hunger can start making plans for the purchase of new equipment and renovations. We hope that these grants will help make the holidays a little brighter not just for the food pantry staff and volunteers, but also, most importantly, for the families served by these organizations.”
The campaign is part of Walmart’s recently announced commitment to create a more sustainable food system, with a focus on improving the affordability of food by lowering the “true cost” of food for both customers and the environment, increasing access to food, making healthier eating easier, and improving the safety and transparency of the food chain. This commitment includes a goal of providing four billion meals to those in need in the U.S. over the next five years. To learn more about Walmart’s work to fight hunger, visit www.foundation.walmart.com/our-focus/hunger/.