Food Lion Tackling Childhood Hunger During COVID-19

Food Lion's latest effort to help fight hunger during the coronavirus pandemic is to partner with school districts helping deliver meals to children and their families. The food retailer is donating reusable bags for the distribution and $20 gift cards to supplement the meals. 

The $500,000 donation is going to school systems with the highest percentage of student eligibility for the National School Lunch Program in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. In March, Food Lion pledged a separate $3.1 million to fight hunger with 15 million meals through its Feeding America-affiliated food bank partners. 

“No child should go to bed hungry, and with our hunger relief partners seeing unprecedented demand, we want to do what we can to help make sure that children in our towns and cities have the food they need to thrive,” said Meg Ham, Food Lion president. "These distributions will provide supplemental meals for our youngest neighbors who rely on the school system for food. This is a difficult time for many, but our commitment to nourishing our neighbors is as strong as it’s ever been.”

Salisbury, N.C.-based Food Lion has more than 1,000 stores in 10 Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states, and employs more than 68,000 associates. Parent company Ahold Delhaize USA, the U.S. division of Zaandam, Netherlands-based Royal Ahold Delhaize Group, is No. 4 on Progressive Grocer’s 2019 Super 50 list of the top grocers in the United States.