Big Y Donates 176K Lbs. of Food
Big Y’s 5th annual Sack Hunger/Care to Share program, which ran from Nov. 6 through Dec. 31, 2014, gave 19,238 bags of food -- about 176,000 pounds -- to regional charities. The campaign urges customers to purchase large brown reusable grocery bags filled with staple nonperishable food items at $10 each; Big Y then distributes the food to area food banks.
In turn, the food banks send the filled bags to local soup kitchens, food pantries, senior food programs and day care centers, as well as many other member agencies. Since the initiative began, more than 74,000 bags have been donated.
"Our Sack Hunger program makes it easy to provide nutritious, nonperishable staple food to those less fortunate within our community," said Big Y President and COO Charles L. D'Amour, who added that "all of [the] donated food has already been distributed to our area food banks."
All five food banks within the Springfield, Mass.-based grocer's marketing area, representing more than 2,100 member agencies throughout the region, take part in Sack Hunger.
Family-owned and -operated Big Y, one of the largest independently owned supermarket chains in New England, operates 63 stores throughout Connecticut and Massachusetts, with more than 10,000 employees.