The GIANT Company donated $35,000 to Helping Harvest Food Bank in Reading on Wednesday as part of the grocery retailer’s efforts to address food insecurity during Hunger Action Month.
GIANT team members also spent the day volunteering at Helping Harvest, located at 117 Morgan Drive, helping the food bank with its operations and stocking a shipment of fresh produce.
The event also recognized America’s Grow-a-Row, a New Jersey-based nonprofit farm that donated a truckload of fresh produce to Helping Harvest.
The donation was part of GIANT’s broader Hunger Action Month initiative. Throughout September, the company plans to donate a total of $400,000 to 24 partner food banks while also organizing volunteer activities in communities it serves.
Hunger Action Month is a national campaign established by the Feeding America network of food banks in 2007. Held each September, the campaign is intended to raise awareness of hunger and encourage people and organizations to take action to address food insecurity.
America’s Grow-a-Row grows, gleans and distributes fresh produce to individuals and communities with limited access to healthy food. The organization began in 2002 when founder Chip Paillex and his then-4-year-old daughter started a garden and eventually donated 120 pounds of excess produce to a local food pantry.
The effort has since expanded considerably. According to the organization, America’s Grow-a-Row now grows food on 423 acres of preserved farmland in New Jersey and provides fresh produce and educational programs benefiting more than 168,000 people across 29 states. The organization says it has provided more than 17 million servings of fresh food.
The GIANT Company, based in Carlisle, operates nearly 200 GIANT and MARTIN’S stores across Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia and employs more than 35,000 people.
