Giant Co.’s Feeding School Kids Initiative Back for 5th Year
The Giant Co.’s annual Feeding School Kids initiative has returned for its fifth year. Under the initiative, customers at Giant, Martin’s and Giant Heirloom Market stores can round up their purchases to the nearest dollar, buy a reusable bag or convert their Choice points into a donation for local public school districts’ food programs now through March 31.
“School food programs are crucial when it comes to fighting student hunger by helping to ensure children have regular access to nutritious food during school, on weekends and during school breaks,” noted Courtney Hopcraft, The Giant Co.’s manager of community relations and charitable giving. “To date, The Giant Co. and our customers have donated more than $7.6 million through this initiative. Continuing this program for a fifth year will allow local schools to earn more needed funds to address food insecurity and nourish school children in need.”
To kick off this year’s program, The Giant Co. is donating $100,000. Through Feeding School Kids, public school districts can support meal programs and tackle food insecurity by providing backpacks filled with weekend food, clearing outstanding student lunch debt, creating on-campus food pantries, starting garden programs, and more.
[Read more: Tops in Education Doubles Down in January]
This past year, for instance, in Pennsylvania, the Colonial School District provided around 8,000 students with meals over the summer to bridge the nutrition gap between when school ended and began again; the DuBois Area School District offered additional snacks for 1,100 students who took part in the free school breakfast and lunch program; the Central Dauphin School District provided 2,000 students with weekly Nutri-packs for dinner, weekends and school breaks; the Cumberland Valley School District replaced a necessary cafeteria steamer in a school kitchen; and the Eastern York School District covered negative student lunch balances and served nutritious breakfasts to students on state-mandated testing days, helping 2,200 students.
“NutriPacks is a volunteer organization committed to helping students in the Central Dauphin School District have access to nutritious food on the weekends and school breaks so that hunger is not a barrier to their academic success,” explained Sandra Brooks, director of the Central Dauphin School District NutriPacks Program. “Because of donations and grants received during the 2023-24 school year, NutriPacks was able to serve 800 students each week. The lives of our most vulnerable children in the Central Dauphin community have been positively changed because of the generosity of our community partners, such as The Giant Co.”
The Giant Co. is an omnichannel grocer operating across Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia, with more than 35,000 team members and 193 stores operating under the Giant, Martin’s and Giant Heirloom Market banners. Parent company Ahold Delhaize USA, a division of Zaandam, Netherlands-based Ahold Delhaize, is No. 11 on The PG 100, PG’s 2024 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America. PG also named the company one of its Retailers of the Century and among the 2024 10 Most Sustainable Grocers.
