Kroger Boosts Pandemic Charity Efforts
The Kroger Co. has sent up a $10 million relief fund designed to boost pandemic response efforts throughout the country.
The money will come from the food retailer’s The Kroger Co. Zero Hunger/Zero Waste Foundation, the company said, and could help support local, state and national grant programs for pandemic response efforts. That foundation already has donated $6 million to nonprofits that are helping people make it through the pandemic and its problems, including making more free food available and working to check on isolated senior citizens.
Along with that effort, Kroger said it has launched several new programs to encourage its customers to support the fund’s charitable efforts. Those include enabling shoppers to round up their purchases to the nearest dollar or otherwise make $1, $5 or $10 donations at checkout lanes in some 2,800 Kroger stores. Customers can also make donations directly to the Kroger foundation via ZeroHungerZeroWasteFoundation.org.
"We recognize the need in our communities is urgent and increasing every day," said Keith Dailey, Kroger's group vice president of corporate affairs. "Kroger's Zero Hunger/Zero Waste social impact plan is our commitment to help create communities free of hunger and waste — and never has this mission been more important.”
Food retailers are also donating to people directly involved with pandemic protection efforts. On April 13, Southeastern Grocers Inc. covered in-store purchases for healthcare workers and first responders who shopped at the chain’s locations in in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina. The purchases were made during a special hour set aside for those workers to shop. That move came after Southeastern Grocers donated $250,000 to Feeding America to further help with pandemic response efforts.
