As a result of Gleaners Community Food Bank’s partnership with the SpartanNash Foundation and the VG’s in Howell and Brighton, the local food pantry received a $3,400 donation from the retail grocery chain to help end hunger.
Between Aug. 31 and Sept. 11, the SpartanNash Foundation hosted a companywide retail scan campaign in each of SpartanNash’s 160 corporate-owned stores in nine states. Store guests and company associates who visited the stores during the 12-day retail scan campaign had the opportunity to donate $1, $5 or $10, with 100 percent of dollars raised going to support community food pantries such as Gleaners.
“We are so grateful for the generosity of VG’s Grocery and were particularly impressed by the level of engagement shown by the staff at their Howell and Brighton locations,” said Doug Czajkowski, Gleaners’ chief development officer. “Gleaners knows hungry kids need food to thrive and the continued relationships we’ve established with corporate partners like the SpartanNash Foundation is absolutely invaluable.”
For nearly 40 years, Gleaners Community Food Bank has been “feeding hungry people and nourishing our communities.” From its Detroit headquarters, Gleaners operates five distribution centers and provides food to 535 agencies throughout southeastern Michigan. Collecting 34.5 million pounds of food a year and distributing 79,000 meals a day Gleaners also educates 84,700 children about food and nutrition. Every dollar donated provides three meals and 93 cents of every donated dollar goes to food and food programs.
The SpartanNash Foundation’s retail scan campaign to end hunger was its most successful companywide fundraising effort to date – raising nearly $300,000 on behalf of more than 100 local food pantries and food banks in the communities it serves.
SpartanNash – which owns the VG’s Grocery stores located on W. Grand River in Howell and E. Grand River in Brighton – underwrote the cost of the fundraising campaign so that all donations will benefit Gleaners and families in need in the local community. Each SpartanNash store personally selected the partner food pantry the campaign would support, ensuring the scan to end hunger would have a significant local impact.
“The generosity of our store guests during this retail scan campaign was incredible. We are most grateful to all who joined forces with the SpartanNash Foundation and our associates to support our efforts to end hunger in the communities where we live and work,” said Meredith Gremel, SpartanNash vice president of corporate affairs and communications and executive director of the SpartanNash Foundation.
“Together, we have made a tremendous difference, and it is clear that the local aspect of this fundraising effort was important to our store guests, as 100 percent of the $3,400 raised here in this community is going directly to Gleaners Food Bank.”
SpartanNash is the fifth largest food distributor in the United States and has 159 corporate-owned stores in nine states participating in the companywide retail scan campaign.
In 2016, nearly $825,000 was raised through the SpartanNash Foundation’s companywide scan campaigns, benefitting local Habitat for Humanity, Special Olympics, patriotic and food pantry partners.
