GIANT food stores donate $35K to school meals
FRANCONIA >> If you rounded your bill up to the nearest dollar or donated by converting points earned with your purchases at three local Giant supermarkets earlier this year, you were one of the contributors to the almost $35,000 raised through those efforts and presented to Souderton Area School District’s food services programs.
“This really helps our families,” Lisa Gentile, the district’s interim supervisor of food services, said as Keith Wagner, manager of the Harleysville Giant, Michael Downey, manager of the Souderton store, and Brian Camilleri, manager of the Hatfield store, presented the district with a check for $34,904 on May 18.
“I was very surprised — pleasantly surprised — when I saw the dollar amount,” Gentile said.
The donation came from money received at the three local stores as part of the company’s Feeding School Kids initiative, Downey said.
The money will more than pay off all the student meal debt in the district, with the remaining funds going for meals for students over the summer, Gentile said.
Although students received federally-funded free meals this year during the pandemic, there had still been unpaid meal bills from the 2019-2020 school year, Gentile said. The student meals remain free for the 2021-2022 school year.
Giant is honored to play an active part in the community by partnering with the school district and proud to be part of the program to feed kids, Downey said.
“No child should ever be hungry and wonder where their next meal is coming from,” he said.
“Through its new Feeding School Kids initiative, the GIANT Company together with its customers raised more than $3.3 million to address the issue of childhood hunger throughout local public school districts in the communities it serves,” the company said in a release.
Giant matched the first $1.5 million donated by customers, Downey said.
The company employs more than 35,000 and has nearly 190 stores, 132 pharmacies, 107 fuel stations and more than 150 online pickup hubs in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia, according to company information. Giant, which was founded in 1923 in Carlisle, Pa., is part of Ahold Delhaize USA.