Weis Markets Raises $290K for Food Banks
Over the past three months, Sunbury, Pa.-based supermarket chain Weis Markets and its associates have raised $290,000 for more than 100 community hunger relief organizations in the communities it serves through its annual Fight Hunger program.
This total includes $125,000 raised for the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank through the new Weis/Penn State Athletics Fight Hunger program, which was promoted during Penn State home football games this season. This eight-week program was supported through an in-store promotional program in which 12 vendors participated. An additional $165,000 was raised in-store for local emergency food providers during Hunger Action month in September.
“Food insecurity remains an ongoing challenge in many of the markets we serve, said Richard Gunn, Weis’ SVP of merchandising and marketing. “To help, we added a second phase to our program — our new Weis/Penn State Athletics Fight Hunger program. In its first year, it helped us raise $125,000 for the Central PA Food Bank, an organization serving a region where we operate 79 stores and one where nearly 20 percent of children live in food-insecure households.”
Vendor Community Steps Up
The following vendors helped support the 2016 Weis/Penn State Athletics’ Fight Hunger program: Unilever, Pepsi, Frito-Lay, Pinnacle Foods, Kraft-Heinz, Utz, Pepperidge Farm, Swift, Kimberley-Clark, CSM Bakery Solutions, Clorox and Kellogg’s.
The Fight Hunger food drive benefits local food banks and pantries throughout the states in which Weis Markets operates.
Regional food banks participating in the program and that also helped coordinate local pickups include: The Second Harvest Food Bank of the Lehigh Valley and Northeast (Pa.); The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank (Harrisburg, Pa.); The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank (Williamsport, Pa.); The Maryland Food Bank (Md.); The Commission on Economic Opportunity/The Weinberg Northeast Regional Food Bank (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Pa.); Greater Berks Food Bank (Reading, Pa.); Philabundance (Greater Philadelphia Area); Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse (CHOW)/Broome County Council of Churches (Broome County, N.Y.); Food Bank of the Southern Tier (Elmira, N.Y.); Food Bank Network of Somerset County (Somerset County, N.J.); Northwest Community Action Program NORWESCAP Food Bank (Phillipsburg, N.J.); and Mountaineer Food Bank (W.V.).
Food insecurity is a growing problem throughout the United States. According to Feeding America, a national hunger-relief organization, 49 million Americans live in food-insecure households, affecting 33.1 million adults and 15.9 million children.