Walmart Donates $1.42 Billion in FY16 to Advance Commitments to Economic Opportunity, Sustainability and Local Communities

Baltimore, MD, May 9, 2016 – Walmart and the Walmart Foundation announced that over the last fiscal year they gave more than $1.42 billion in cash and in-kind contributions to support extensive social and environmental work. The contributions have furthered Walmart’s “whole systems” approach to continue advancing its commitments to creating economic opportunity for associates and others in the retail and related sectors, enhancing the sustainability of Walmart’s operations and product supply chain, and strengthening communities in places where Walmart operates. Walmart and the Walmart Foundation donated $6,660,400 last fiscal year to support Maryland, nonprofits like The Light House, Food Link, Vehicles for Change, Blessings in a Backpack, Salisbury Neighborhood Housing Services, Living Classrooms, Maryland Community Connection and Real School Gardens.

“Walmart and the Walmart Foundation are committed to expanding resources, increasing opportunity and education and improving the quality of life for Maryland residents through partnerships with hardworking not-for-profit organizations across the state,” said Erik Hingst, Director of Public Affairs & Government Relations for Walmart. “It is through these partnerships that we are able to help strengthen communities not only in Maryland, but across the country and world.”

In October 2014, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation announced a commitment to help feed a growing planet by enhancing the sustainability of the food system. The commitment will further Walmart’s goals of fighting hunger in the U.S. by improving access to food and includes a goal to provide four billion meals to those in need between 2015 and 2020. As part of that commitment, this year Walmart and the Walmart Foundation donated 611 million pounds of food and $61 million in funding to organizations working to alleviate hunger.

In Maryland, Walmart donated 3,155,620 pounds of food to local food banks, the equivalent of more than 2,600,000 meals-- last fiscal year. The retailer and its Foundation have collaborated with Meals on Wheels in the state of Maryland to provide support for their home-delivered meals program, ensuring homebound residents eat well and have access to services like grocery shopping and phone support.

“Our mission is to enable homebound seniors to live independently at home through the provision of nutritious meals, personal contact and related services,” said Stephanie Archer-Smith, Executive Director, Meals on Wheels of Central MD. “Thanks to the grant from the Walmart Foundation we have been able to support food costs for 740,799 meals, emergency meal kits for their clients during inclement weather, and other nutrition counseling and outreach support for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).”

Major accomplishments in the last fiscal year include:

o Accelerating job mobility: Walmart invested $2.7 billion over two years in wages, benefits and training for U.S. associates. Additionally, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation committed $100 million over five years to increase economic mobility among U.S. retail and related-sector workers. In FY16, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation gave grants totaling $39 million in support of the Retail Opportunity Initiative, which aims to increase upward mobility of retail and adjacent sector workers in the U.S.

o Sourcing from and training women: Walmart and the Walmart Foundation provided $122 million in grants to support women’s economic empowerment and provided training for more than one million women farmers, factory workers and others. Since 2011, Walmart has sourced more than $16.4 billion from women-owned businesses, making significant progress toward its goal of sourcing $20 billion from women-owned businesses through 2016.

o Accelerating reintegration of veterans into civilian life: Walmart and the Walmart Foundation committed $20 million through 2019 to support reintegration of U.S. veterans into civilian life. Through FY16, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation have invested $14.5 million, including a $1 million grant to the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) to start a three-year pilot to identify new ways to serve veterans.

o Reducing Impact of Walmart Operations: As part of its participation in the Consumer Goods Forum and effort to achieve zero net deforestation, based on data reported by suppliers, Walmart achieved its goal to sustainably source 100 percent of its private brand palm oil by the end of 2015, in accordance with the certification standards of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. At the end of 2015, Walmart U.S. diverted from landfills 82 percent of materials previously considered waste and has protected more than one million acres of wildlife habitat through support to Acres for America.

o Increasing sustainability of products and product supply chains: Through ongoing work with the Environmental Defense Fund, and based upon reports from participating suppliers, Walmart successfully met and exceeded its ambitious goal of eliminating 20 million metric tons (MMT) of greenhouse gas emissions from its supply chain by eliminating a reported 35.6 MMT since the goal was set.

o Strengthening disaster response and community preparedness: This year, to mark the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation made a $25 million commitment over five years to improve community disaster response. Walmart and the Walmart Foundation also provided $5.8 million in response contributions and helped 87 communities after disasters.

o Furthering causes important to local communities: In FY2016, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation gave $95 million through community, state giving and volunteerism grants. In addition, Walmart associates volunteered more than 1.25 million hours in their local communities and the Walmart Foundation awarded more than 800 scholarships to associates and their dependents to support higher education.

For more information about the Walmart Foundation’s giving, visit giving.walmart.com/foundation.

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About Philanthropy at Walmart

By using our strengths to help others, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation create opportunities for people to live better every day. We have stores in 28 countries, employing more than 2.3 million associates and doing business with thousands of suppliers who, in turn, employ millions of people. We are helping people live better by accelerating upward job mobility and economic development for the retail workforce; addressing hunger and making healthier, more sustainably-grown food a reality; and building strong communities where we operate and inspiring our associates to give back. Whether it is helping to lead the fight against hunger in the United States with $2 billion in cash and in-kind donations or supporting Women’s Economic Empowerment through a series of grants totaling $10 million to the Women in Factories training program in Bangladesh, China, India and Central America, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation are not only working to tackle key social issues, we are also collaborating with others to inspire solutions for long-lasting systemic change. To learn more about Walmart’s giving, visit foundation.walmart.com.