She or he may be a distant relative or your next door neighbor, but chances are you know one of the estimated one in five families and one in four children in Arizona who struggle with food insecurity at some point during the year. From April 2 through April 30, Arizona residents can make a real difference in the lives of local families.
Walmart, Feeding America and St. Mary’s Food Bank today kicked off the fifth annual nationwide “Fight Hunger. Spark Change.” campaign online and in stores. Walmart and Feeding America are doubling their meal goal to help secure at least 200 million meals, increasing supplier participation to 14, and introducing the Walmart Credit Card as a new way for customers to get involved in the campaign. In another first, Walmart is uniting with social networking site, Nextdoor, to drive conversations in local communities across the nation on ways they can combat hunger.
“By working with Walmart, its 14 supplier partners and Synchrony Bank, we have an amazing opportunity to make progress towards fighting hunger in our community,” said Tom Kertis, President and CEO of St. Mary’s Food Bank. “This campaign will help increase awareness about the issue of hunger in America, allowing us to secure more local funds and ultimately provide more food to people in need in Arizona. We hope people across the state will take action and participate in the campaign.”
Beginning today through April 30, Walmart is offering four ways that customers can get involved and fight hunger online, in-store and through social sharing to help secure meals for local food banks, St. Mary’s Food Bank. Visit Walmart.com/fighthunger for further details. Here are the ways customers can participate in the fight against hunger.
- Purchase Product: For every participating product purchased at U.S. and Puerto Rico Walmart stores or on Walmart.com from April 2 – April 30, 2018, the supplier will donate the monetary equivalent of one meal ($0.10) on behalf of a Feeding America member food bank, up to applicable limits. Participating suppliers include General Mills, The Coca-Cola Company, Kellogg, Kraft Heinz, PepsiCo/Frito-Lay/Quaker, Bush Brothers, Clorox Sales Company, Conagra, Motts, Unilever, Maruchan, Pinnacle Foods, Post, and JM Smucker.
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- Donate money to your local Feeding America food bank at participating Walmart stores in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Donations can be made at the register to St. Mary’s Food Bank in increments of $1, $2, $5 or an amount chosen by the customer. Donating is also an option at the self-checkout (Scan and Go) register. When customers click “Finish & Pay” on totals over $10, it will trigger the prompt with details on donating.
- Make an online act of support: For every traceable post of campaign content with #FightHunger on Instagram and for every traceable share or retweet on Facebook and Twitter of campaign content, Walmart will donate $10.00 to Feeding America and for every click on the support button on the program website, Walmart will donate $1.00 to Feeding America, up to $1.5 million.
- Use the Walmart Credit Card: Synchrony Bank will donate the monetary equivalent of one meal ($0.10) for each Walmart Credit Card transaction made at Walmart stores and on Walmart.com during the campaign, up to $750,000.
The ‘’Fight Hunger. Spark Change.’’ campaign launches at a critical time. In Arizona, food insecurity affects one in five families and one in four children. Nationally, one in eight Americans (41 million), including one in six children (nearly 13 million) struggle with hunger at some point during the year, according to the USDA.
Food insecurity also affects certain populations more profoundly including children, seniors, minority and Latino communities. For Latino communities, one in five Latinos are food insecure compared to 1 in 10 white, non-Hispanics and 1 in 8 Americans overall. For Latino children, nearly a quarter (24 percent) are food insecure compared to 13 percent for white, non-Hispanic children, according to Feeding America’s Latino Hunger 2017 report.
“In communities big and small across the country, there are families struggling with hunger,” said Kathleen McLaughlin, president of the Walmart Foundation and chief sustainability officer for Walmart. “By working together during this campaign with our suppliers, customers and friends at Feeding America, we can help secure 200 million meals that will help those who need it most.”
Last year, St. Mary’s Food Bank receive more than $175,000 from Walmart’s campaign to fight hunger.
