Feeding Northeast Florida (FNEFL), the region’s largest and most efficient food bank, today announced a $750,000 grant from Walmart and Feeding America®, part of a continuing, multi-year partnership to strengthen food donation efforts between food banks, partner agencies and local retailers.
Funded by Walmart and awarded to 13 food banks in the Feeding America network of local and regional food banks, the Retail Agency Capacity Grant equips food banks’ partner agencies – food pantries, meal programs – with equipment, vehicles and staff to support “food rescue” efforts, in which grocers donate fresh, frozen and shelf-stable foods to food banks and agency partners.
FNEFL will apply the grant funds to multiple areas of need, including partner agency support, branding and truck wraps, new pantry efforts, and more, with the remainder supporting the organization’s general fund.
FNEFL serves 12 counties across North and North Central Florida, including four counties through its branch facility Bread of the Mighty (BOTM), in Gainesville. More than 310,000 individuals face some level of food insecurity across the communities FNEFL serves, including 93,690 children –– breaking down to approximately one in seven adults and one in five children. These staggering numbers represent a 17% increase over last year. The organization serves more than 95,000 people per day, and the need is only rising.
“This grant will strengthen the capacity of our agency partners—helping us better serve our neighbors with the nutritious food and resources they need,” said Susan King, President and CEO of Feeding Northeast Florida. “We are incredibly thankful to Feeding America and Walmart for their generous support. Together, we are creating a more efficient, reliable, and compassionate hunger relief system and a more dependable network of support for the people who count on us everyday.”
With these grants, Walmart has donated a total of $15.75 million to 33 food banks and hundreds of partner agencies to increase their capacity to recover and distribute fresh food. These investments have led to substantial increases in the number of weekly donated food pickups through new equipment like refrigerated vans, added staff and new technology and training.
“Increasing access to food is key to Walmart’s purpose to help people to live better, and we’ve been working with Feeding America for the past 20 years to help local food banks and agencies recover and distribute more food donations,” said Julie Gehrki, Senior Vice President at Walmart and President of the Walmart Foundation. “We’re honored to build on this work through our support of Feeding Northeast Florida. We look forward to collaborating to get more fresh food to people who need it.”
This year’s grant announcement continues a celebration of 20 years of partnership between Walmart, Sam’s Club and Feeding America that’s grown into one of the most transformative collaborations in the hunger relief space – with approximately $271 million in donations – including more than $177 million from the company and the Walmart Foundation and nearly $95 million from customers and members. Walmart and Sam’s Club have also donated more than 9 billion pounds of food to the Feeding America network of local food banks and partner agencies since 2006, making them Feeding America’s largest corporate donor.
For more information, to donate, or to find food, visit feedingnefl.org.
