Food Lion Banners, Bottom Dollar Aim to 'Cure' Hunger

The Food Lion family of banners and sister chain Bottom Dollar Food have rolled out the eighth annual "Hunger Has a Cure" campaign in support of area Feeding America-affiliated food banks. Running through Dec. 28, the campaign enables shoppers to buy ready-made food boxes or donate food in bins. The Delhaize Group-owned operations hope to collectively surpass previous box donation counts by amassing 1.5 million pounds of food this year.

According to Bill Garcia, community relations manager for Food Lion Family and Bottom Dollar Food: "The United States Department of Agriculture's recent finding that nearly 17 million families nationwide struggled to feed their families last year speaks to the magnitude of the challenges we face. We believe that, as a grocer, we are responsible for doing what we can to help our neighbors who have trouble putting food on their tables. Hunger does, indeed, have a cure; and this is our antidote. We want to do all that we can to spread awareness about how hunger impacts our communities.”

The ready-made food boxes hold five to seven items and can be purchased at Food Lion, Bloom, Harveys, Reid’s and Bottom Dollar Food stores for $4.99 each. All locations feature a designated food collection area where customers can place the food boxes or other nonperishable items.

Since January 2010, Food Lion Family and Bottom Dollar Food grocery donations to Chicago-based Feeding America have totaled about 30 million pounds of food worth more than $45 million. Since the inception of the grocers’ partnership with the anti-hunger organization, in 2002, more than 250 million pounds of food have been donated to Feeding America and its affiliated food banks.

Food Lion Family, a subsidiary of Brussels-based Delhaize Group, operates more than 1,300 supermarkets, either directly or through affiliated entities, under the names of Food Lion, Bloom, Harveys and Reid's. Food Lion employs about 74,000 associates in 11 Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states. Discount concept Bottom Dollar Food, based, like Food Lion, in Salisbury, N.C., operates 29 stores in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.