Walmart to Provide 35M Meals, $3M in Anti-hunger Grants

[Sherman A1]

Walmart and 10 well-known U.S. food companies have begun the third chapter of the “Fighting Hunger Together” initiative, which aims to reduce hunger across the country. The Bentonville, Ark.-based mega-retailer, joined by top grocery suppliers Campbell Soup Co., ConAgra Foods, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, General Mills, Kraft Foods Group, Kellogg Company, Mondelez International, Nestlé USA, PepsiCo and Unilever, will engage millions of customers and Walmart associates this spring to bring food and funding to nonprofit hunger relief organizations.

To address the critical issue of children in food-insecure households, Fighting Hunger Together will team with Chicago-based Feeding America to deliver $3 million in grants for hunger programs and provide more than 35 million meals for local Feeding America food banks and their partner agencies across the United States.

“An astonishing one in five 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,” noted 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.”

http://www.progressivegrocer.com/top-stories/headlines/corporate-responsibility/id37735/walmart-to-provide-35m-meals-3m-in-anti-hunger-grants/?icid=homepage

This is interesting on several levels

[Ikonoklast]

1. I'd be willing to bet they will be feeding at least some hungry children of their own employees.

God forbid they pay a living wage in the first place.

[Sherman A1]

2. As I said

This is interesting on several levels........

[HiPointDem]

3. PR initiative to counter recent bad publicity and anti-walmart organizing which have possibly

hurt their sales.

$3 million & 35 million 'meals' spread between all those corporations is literally *nothing*. and they probably get tax breaks for doing it.

another gag.

[Summer Hathaway]

4. So let me understand this ...

Walmart pays it employees wages so low they can't feed their families, and then Walmart steps forward to help feed the hungry families they created.

We all know that Walmart only steps up to the plate when they think there's a "see, we're good people after all" angle they can get some publicity out of.

Well, here's some free advice to Walmart: Announce tomorrow that you are raising the salaries of all your employees, thereby eliminating the need for many of them to rely on tax-funded programs like food stamps to get by.

That'll bring ya the 'goodwill' publicity you seek, and it all will cost you overall is a pittance compared to your profits.

[ProSense]

11. Exactly. n/t

[reformist2]

5. I wonder how many people reading this will think WalMart has to feed their own employees!

This PR move is going to completely backfire on them. LOL

[Katashi_itto]

6. Obviously since their profits are falling. They need a PR boost.

Lets feed some of the rabble we created"

Stat: When a Walmart moves into the area, that area loses 150 jobs,

[pinboy3niner]

7. They've been doing this all along. Corporate philanthropy is almost obligatory.

Our local food bank and our program for homeless vets gets donations from WM every year. It's always good PR, though they may be making a bigger and more visible effort now to mitigate against growing criticism of WM worker policies and other PR problems.

[Cal Carpenter]

10. Not just PR, also tax breaks

But you are absolutely right. They have been providing 'grants' (that sounds better than 'donations' and also requires more paperwork on the part of the nonprofit btw) to a variety of nonprofits including hunger orgs, all along. In fact, many Walmart locations cooperate with local food banks and food rescue groups to pick up older food (bakery items, near-expiration canned goods, produce, etc) on a regular, even daily, basis, rather than throwing it in the dumpster. And when they open a new store, they pass out a few large (in size, not $$) checks to local charities at their opening event. Nice photo-op. Everyone loves an oversized check.


But it is a drop in the bucket as far as hunger and food insecurity goes, it is not even a 'band-aid', and all the more meaningless in the face of WalMart's negative economic impact overall.

Just more of the same, an attempt at CYA and good publicity to counter the bad. But for Walmart in particular and corporate foundations in general, the public seems to be growing more and more cynical about crumbs like this being thrown.

[pinboy3niner]

14. I think you're right--it's growing increasingly harder for them to get away with it these days

I went to the biggest WM Black Friday strike in the country and reported on it here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021875581

[BlueToTheBone]

8. Pay your employees a living wage and that in itself

would reduce poverty and food insecurity in America.

[Ilsa]

9. +1M!!! That and health insurance. nt

[BlueToTheBone]

12. In our state, Walley et al, got the state to

subsidize insurance for their employees. $35 a month for one person.

[woo me with science]

13. Giving "anti-hunger" grants while building an empire on starvation wages...

That's sort of like raising the minimum wage a dollar and 75 cents an hour, while pushing the Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement.



Tran Pacific Plan about to end almost all American Dreams
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022518705