Giant Food Awards Microgrants

$35K going to 16 local D.C. organizations supporting health and wellness

9/30/2021

Giant Food Awards Microgrants Health and Wellness

Giant Foods' microgrants will support a range of programs providing Washington, D.C.’s Ward 8 community with nutrition knowledge, access to healthy food, financial literacy and healthy living.

Giant Food will donate a total of $35,000 to 16 organizations in its first annual Ward 8 Healthy Living Microgrant Program. The microgrants will support a range of programs providing Washington, D.C.’s Ward 8 community with nutrition knowledge, access to healthy food, financial literacy and healthy living.

The microgrant Program is an extension of the retailer’s continuing efforts to address health-and-wellness challenges in the area. In 2018, Giant began its work in the community with an emphasis on improving residents’ knowledge of healthy food and its benefits, the affordability of food to the ward, and access to healthy food.

The recipients of the first annual Ward 8 Healthy Living Microgrant Program were identified through an application process and chosen by a formal committee at Giant, headed by Giant's dedicated Ward 8 nutritionist, Jillian Griffith. The organizations will use the microgrants to further their health-and-wellness education initiatives by hosting classes, workshops and programs, and cover costs for needed materials.

“With Giant’s presence as the only full-service grocery store in the Ward 8 community, we know we have a responsibility to the community to serve as a partner in helping to improve the health and well-being of its residents,” noted Griffith. “I’m so excited for Giant to partner with some of the real movers and shakers in Ward 8 who understand the needs of the community and are truly making a difference through the work of their organizations. I look forward to us reaching even more individuals and families throughout the ward through the selected programs of the microgrant recipients.”

The microgrants recipients are Women Advancing Nutrition, Dietetics, and Agriculture (WANDA); Ward 8 Education Council; FRESHFARM, Mamatoto Village; Family & Friends of Incarcerated People; Everybody’s Juice; Community College Preparatory Academy PCS; HEART (Health Equity & Anti-Racism Team) of the D.C. Chapter of the APTA (American Physical Therapy Association); ATEF FIT LLC; Black Xcellence Prep; Seasoned Settlers; SoBelt; Anacostia AMP Outreach Empowerment Center; Egyptami Wellness; The Wright Family Foundation; and The Kitchen Physician.

Celebrating 85 years as a community grocery store, Landover, Md.-based Giant Food operates 164 supermarkets in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia, with approximately 20,000 associates. Parent company Ahold Delhaize USA is No. 10 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2021 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.