Walmart, Sam’s Club give more than 1 million meals to Georgians in need

ATLANTA — For its 11th year, Walmart and Sam’s Club said their “Fight Hunger. Spark Change” campaign rescued more than 11.68 million pounds of food, helping feed over one million Georgians in need.

According to a company representative, the campaign provided 1.2 million meals to Georgians facing hunger in the past year, running throughout the month of April.

The 11.68 million pounds of food was given to the Atlanta Community Food Bank.

The “Fight Hunger. Spark Change” campaign by Walmart and Sam’s Club has been active since 2013, based on the fact that “everyone needs nutritious food to thrive,” according to a release from a company representative.

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With that in mind, the Atlanta Community Food Bank, which received the meals from Walmart and Sam’s Club, said that 10% of Georgia’s children will go to bed hungry.

The 2023 campaign raised funds to give meals to Georgians across the metro Atlanta and north Georgia areas over the past year, ending in April. While 1.2 million meals were confirmed to have been given out, the amount of funds raised in the most recent campaign are still being calculated, the company said.

“Walmart continues to be one of the Atlanta Community Food Bank’s most important and impactful community partners in the mission to fight hunger,” said Kyle Waide, CEO of Atlanta Community Food Bank, about the program. “Their in-store personnel and marketing managers have worked collaboratively with our food sourcing team to increase the amount of food rescued from Walmart by 22% over the past year. And Walmart’s financial and volunteer support has multiplied that impact, allowing more neighbors to access the food they need to thrive while strengthening the Food Bank’s network of nonprofit feeding partners.”

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The previous campaign raised nearly $400,000 for just the Atlanta Community Food Bank, according to a release.

For the 2023 campaign, the 11,685,041 pounds of food “rescued from Walmart’s store and distribution centers” were given to 70 nonprofit feeding partners of the Atlanta Community Food Bank.

“Serving communities and expanding access to affordable, healthy food lies at the heart of Walmart and Sam’s Club’s purpose to help people live better,” said Kathleen McLaughlin, Executive Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer, Walmart and President, Walmart Foundation. “Our annual Fight Hunger. Spark Change. campaign is a way that we invite our customers, members and suppliers to fight hunger alongside us. The funds raised through this campaign go toward local Feeding America food banks, meaning we can all make a difference in our own neighborhoods.”

The company said there were three ways for shoppers to help during the campaign:

• Donating at check-out in stores or clubs or round up at Walmart.com and through the Walmart app.
• Purchasing participating products in-store or online at Walmart.com or SamsClub.com. For every purchase of a participating product, the supplier-donated the monetary equivalent of at least one meal ($0.10) on behalf of a Feeding America partner food bank at Walmart and five meals ($0.50) at Sam’s Club, up to applicable limits. See specially marked packages for full details.
• Donating at Feeding America’s “Fight Hunger. Spark Change.” campaign donation site at either www.FeedingAmerica.org/Walmart or www.FeedingAmerica.org/SamsClub.

Twenty companies assisted in supplying items for the effort for Walmart, including:

• Bush Brothers & Company
• Celsius
• The Clorox Company
• The Coca-Cola Company
• Conagra Foods
• Dole Packaged Foods
• Ferrara
• Ferraro
• General Mills
• Hain Celestial
• Hershey Salty Snacks Company
• Kellanova
• Kellogg’s
• Keurig Dr. Pepper
• Kodiak
• Kraft Heinz
• Monster Energy
• Pepsi-Cola Advertising & Marketing, Inc.
• Red Bull
• Unilever

General Mills, Kellogg’s Kraft Heinz, Nestle, Nissin, Nongshim, Palmetto and Unilever were the participating suppliers for Sam’s Club.

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