Walmart's 'Food Pantry Holiday Makeover' awards $20K in grants to food pantry winners

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Walmart has announced the 75 food pantry winners of the Food Pantry Holiday Makeover campaign that will each receive a $20,000 grant for facility makeovers.



Over the past two weeks, communities nationwide came together to vote at walmart.com/holidaymakeover for their local food pantry to win a grant. The grants are being made to help the winning food pantries, such as the Chesapeake Cares Food Pantry in Huntingtown, Md., renovate their facilities and purchase essential equipment such as new refrigerators, ovens, stoves, storage units, and even refrigerated trucks to help them better serve families in need.

 

The Food Pantry Holiday Makeover campaign launched at a time when food pantries across the country are preparing for their busiest time of year and facing high rates of need, with more than 49 million Americans experiencing food insecurity in 2013. Meeting this need requires food pantries to not only have food on hand, but also be well equipped to safely store, prepare, and transport the food that will ultimately end up on a family’s table.

 

“We are so thankful for everyone who voted and for the communities that came together to support their local hunger relief agencies,” stated Kathleen McLaughlin, president of the Walmart Foundation and SVP of Walmart Sustainability. “Today, the dedicated food pantry staff and volunteers who work so hard to fight hunger can start making plans for the purchase of new equipment and renovations. We hope that these grants will help make the holidays a little brighter not just for the food pantry staff and volunteers, but also, most importantly, for the families served by these organizations.”



The campaign is part of Walmart’s recently announced commitment to create a more sustainable food system, with a focus on improving the affordability of food by lowering the “true cost” of food for both customers and the environment, increasing access to food, making healthier eating easier, and improving the safety and transparency of the food chain. This commitment includes a goal of providing four billion meals to those in need in the United States over the next five years.