Schnucks’ Donation Helps Mobile Grocery Store Serve St. Louis Food Deserts

Increasing access to healthy and affordable food, Schnuck Markets, Inc. has donated $15,000 to Operation Food Search (OFS) to help the nonprofit organization’s MetroMarket get fresh produce to underserved areas of St. Louis.

MetroMarket, a mobile grocery store that brings healthy and affordable food to St. Louis food desert communities, was founded in 2016 and travels to neighborhoods with little access to fresh, healthy food. The bus operates every Wednesday through Saturday, April through November, making two-hour stops at designated partner locations.

Schnucks’ donation will be used by OFS to distribute 2,000 $5 fresh produce vouchers to members and patients of four area organizations (500 vouchers to each) that can then be redeemed at the MetroMarket mobile grocer:

• Affinia Healthcare (Lemp Avenue)
• Affinia Healthcare (Biddle Street)
• CareSTL Health
• International Institute of St. Louis

An additional $5,000 will enable the MetroMarket to make five weekend flex stops at additional community sites.

“At Schnucks, we feel it’s our obligation to support our communities by helping to fight food insecurity and hunger in the regions we serve, and our biggest partner in this endeavor in the St. Louis area is Operation Food Search,” said Schnucks' Director of Community Engagement and Customer Care Schron Jackson. “Our mission to nourish people’s lives goes well beyond the food that we sell in our stores. We are also committed to making sure those most in need have fresh, nutritious sustenance for themselves and their families.”  

Schnucks’ partnership with OFS goes back more than 40 years, and in that time, the family-owned retailer has donated more than $185 million worth of food to support the non-profit organization and its partner food pantries. Fifty-three percent of all food donated to OFS is donated by Schnucks, making the regional grocer the organization’s largest contributor.

“This most recent contribution from Schnuck Markets shows how our partnership continues to evolve,” said Kristen Wild, president and CEO of St. Louis-based OFS. “Schnucks not only supports our legacy programs that help meet the immediate need for food, but they also strengthen our innovative programs, such as St. Louis MetroMarket. These vouchers will empower shoppers with little access to fresh produce to purchase greater amounts of healthy food at our mobile market.”

Schnucks annually donates more than $13 million in food to pantries that help those in need.

St. Louis-based Schnucks operates more than 100 stores in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, and employs 12,000 associates. The company was one of two grocers selected for this year’s US Best Managed Companies list. Schnucks is No. 64 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2022 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.