The north Georgia community raised more than $378,000 for local families in need through the 12th annual Walmart and Sam's Club Fight Hunger. Spark Change. campaign. Supported by local shoppers, associates, and dedicated partnerships with food and beverage brands, the campaign provided critical donations to the Atlanta Community Food Bank during a period when an estimated 1 in 8 people in metro Atlanta and north Georgia experience food insecurity. Kyle Waide, President and CEO of the Atlanta Community Food Bank, emphasized the growing need, stating that during their most recent fiscal year, the Food Bank distributed 112 million meals to children, families and seniors struggling to make ends meet.
The Atlanta Community Food Bank will be able to provide over 1,134,000 meals for neighbors in need thanks to the generosity of local community members. Through a network of more than 700 community-based, nonprofit partners, the Food Bank distributes and provides access to fresh, nutritious food across communities in metro Atlanta and north Georgia. The annual donation campaign, which ran March 1-31, continued 20 years of partnership between Walmart, Sam's Club and Feeding America, with approximately $281 million in donations since the program's inception. Kayla Burton, senior manager of Cause Marketing and Customer Engagement at Walmart, noted that helping neighbors put food on the table is at the heart of what they do in the community.
The campaign has helped secure more than 2.3 billion meals for Feeding America food banks throughout the country, with $1 helping provide at least 10 meals secured by Feeding America on behalf of local partner food banks. Thirty suppliers participated in this year's campaign, including major food and beverage brands such as The Coca-Cola Company, General Mills, Kellanova, Kraft Heinz, Pepsi-Cola Advertising & Marketing, Inc., and Unilever. The continued partnership demonstrates the retail industry's commitment to addressing food insecurity through coordinated efforts between corporations, suppliers, and local communities. This initiative highlights how sustained corporate-community partnerships can create meaningful impact against systemic challenges like food insecurity, particularly important as organizations report distributing record numbers of meals to meet escalating need.
