Walmart teams with top grocery suppliers to fight hunger

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Walmart and leading grocery suppliers, including Campbell's Soup, ConAgra Foods, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, General Mills, Kraft Foods Group, Kellogg Company, Mondelez International, Nestle USA, PepsiCo and Unilever, have joined forces to engage millions of customers and Walmart associates this spring and bring much needed food and funding to nonprofit organizations that work to fight hunger.

According to the latest data from the USDA, more than 50 million Americans live in food insecure households, and more than 16 million of those impacted are children. To address this issue, the Fighting Hunger Together initiative will partner with Feeding America, the nation's leading domestic hunger relief charity, to deliver $3 million in grants for hunger programs and generate more than 35 million meals for local Feeding America food banks and their partner agencies across the U.S.

"An astonishing 1 in 5 children in America are food insecure, not knowing, at some point during the year, where their next meal will come from, and as the nation's largest grocer, we have a responsibility to help change this reality," said Julie Gehrki, senior director of the Walmart Foundation. "With this initiative, we are working to help families across the U.S. by generating meals and awarding grants to local food banks and agencies to support hunger relief programs, including backpack programs providing vitals meals to children when they are out of school, and community gardens teaching families how to grow their own healthy foods."

The public will have the opportunity to join the fight against hunger and help distribute grants to local communities across the country. Ways to participate include:

Vote – Customers and Walmart associates can visit www.walmart.com/hunger and cast one vote per day for a Feeding America food bank or partner agency in local communities across the country. The winning 100 organizations, which will be announced in May, will share $3 million in grants to fund hunger relief programs.

Volunteer – Customers and associates can pledge to volunteer at their local food bank by visiting www.walmart.com/hunger.

In addition, from April 1 through August 31, Walmart associates can volunteer at food banks and other hunger relief organizations and compete for a chance to select an organization in their community to receive a $5,000 grant, as part of Volunteerism Goes Viral.