Food Lion Donates 152M Meals in 2021

In partnership with Food Lion’s customers, Food Lion Feeds, the grocer’s hunger-relief initiative, has donated more than 152 million meals to feed food-insecure neighbors in 2021, a time when neighbors across the retailer’s 10-state footprint continued to face challenges related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

In parts of Food Lion’s footprint, as many as one in six people, including one in five children, are living in households without reliable access to food. Nationally, according to Feeding America, more than 38 million people, including 12 million children, face food insecurity, and recent numbers indicate that more than 60 million people annually turn to food banks and community programs for help putting food on the table.

To help combat this issue, more than 52 million meals alone were donated in 2021 through Food Lion Feeds’ food rescue program, in which every Food Lion store gives excess food to a local feeding agency for neighbors in need. Additionally, 30 million meals were donated in partnership with customers through Food Lion’s four annual in-store campaigns, during which meal donations are connected to a customer’s purchase of a designated product or financial donation.

The remaining 2021 meals were donated through a combination of product, financial and equipment donations; disaster relief and recovery efforts; capital campaign support for feeding agencies; and volunteer hours by associates, based on various meal equivalent formulas.

“Our neighbors are counting on us more than ever, and that’s why we’re doing everything we can to try to eliminate the difficult choices many of our neighbors are forced to make,” said Kevin Durkee, manager of the retailer’s Food Lion Feeds. “Caring for the towns and cities we serve is core to everything we do, and we’re committed to fighting hunger and setting our neighbors up for success. We appreciate the partnership and dedication of our community partners, and they have our commitment that we will continue to do everything we can to continue our shared mission of fighting food insecurity.”

Since 2014, Food Lion has donated more than 900 million meals through Food Lion Feeds. The grocer has committed to donate 1.5 billion meals by 2025.

Salisbury, N.C.-based Food Lion has more than 1,100 stores in 10 Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states, and employs more than 82,000 associates. Its parent company, Ahold Delhaize USA, a division of Zaandam, Netherlands-based Ahold Delhaize operating more than 2,000 stores across 23 states, is No. 10 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2021 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.