Stop & Shop donates over $160,000 Donated to NYCFB

Stop & Shop donated a check for over $160,000 to Food Bank For New York City at their Mobile Pantry distribution at 923 Longwood Avenue in the Bronx. Stop & Shop associates also volunteered at Food Bank’s Mobile Pantry, handing out nutritious food to community members. Stop & Shop’s primary charitable pillar is to fight hunger across its region and is proud that its donation will help Food Bank For New York City empower every New Yorker to achieve food security for good. The donation is part of a larger $2 million donation from Stop & Shop to eight Feeding America food banks across New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut to support programs that fight against food insecurity

The donation from Stop & Shop came from a combination of its in-store ‘Feed It Forward’ campaign, which ran from May 1st to May 31st, and the Stop & Shop Family Foundation. $36,000 was raised through the ‘Feed It Forward’ campaign and $125,000 was donated from the Stop & Shop Family Foundation to support Food Bank For New York City’s Mobile Pantry and Youth Engagement Community Food Pantry programs.

Food Bank’s Mobile Pantry program puts its mission on wheels, deploying Food Bank trucks across New York City to 15 sites, targeting gaps in their network where food assistance programs have closed, do not exist, or simply need more capacity to serve the long lines in their neighborhoods. Each monthly outdoor Mobile Pantry distribution can provide up to 300 families with a week’s worth of healthy, nutritious food through a client choice model, a structure that aims to reflect a shopping experience. Since its inception, the Mobile Pantry program has distributed over 1.5 million pounds of food to more than 160,000 New Yorkers. In fiscal year 2023, Mobile Pantry reached nearly 100,000 individuals with nearly 600,000 pounds of nutritious food.

Food Bank For New York City’s Youth Engagement Community Food Pantry program embeds full-scale pantries in community-based organizations in Upper Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, extending the impact of food distribution efforts to the children and families these organizations serve to create a direct channel to food resources for community members in neighborhoods facing high levels of food insecurity. FBNYC operates five year-round Youth Engagement Community Food Pantry sites that distribute standard meal kits to families, which contain up to nine days of food for every member of a household, including grains, vegetables, fruits, proteins, and dairy.

“Fighting hunger in the communities we serve, is Stop & Shop’s primary charitable effort, which is why we are proud to support Food Bank For New York City’s mission to empower every New Yorker to achieve food security for good,” said Tarik Stewart, Regional Vice President of Operations at Stop & Shop. “We are honored to donate over $160,000 to the Food Bank For New York City to support their Mobile Pantry and Youth Engagement Community Food Pantry programs, so our fellow New Yorkers can receive greater access to nutritious healthy food.”

According to the USDA, more than 38 million people, including 12 million children, in the United States are food insecure. More than three years since the outbreak of COVID-19, hunger in New York City remains at crisis levels. More than 416 thousand children under 18 in New York City live in households that are food insecure. This is an increase of 15 percent in comparison to the previous year. Currently, there are more than 1.2 million food insecure New Yorkers living in the city.

Stop & Shop has been a generous partner of Food Bank For New York City for several years helping the organization continue to fight food insecurity. Stop & Shop’s ‘Feed It Forward’ campaign, Meat The Needs program, Annual Turkey Express program, Stop & Shop Family Foundation donation, School Food Pantry Program, and direct support are a few of the many ways the company supports anti-hunger organizations in the communities it serves.

“We are grateful to work with Stop & Shop in the fight against food insecurity. As one of our long-standing partners, we continue to work together to empower every New Yorker to achieve food security for good,” says Leslie Gordon, President & CEO of Food Bank For New York City. “Thanks to Stop & Shop, families who struggle to make ends meet will have access to the healthy and nutritious foods they need to thrive. We’re entering Summer, which can be a season of uncertainty for parents in every corner of New York City. We appreciate Stop & Shop’s generosity and dedication to ensuring all New Yorkers have a meal at the table.”

The donation of over $160,000 will enable FBNYC to better serve the community members across all five boroughs. To learn more about Stop & Shop’s community support; visit: https://stopandshop.com/pages/feed-it-forward.