Walmart Fights Hunger in Michigan with Nonprofit Forgotten Harvest

April 4, 2014 /3BL Media/ - According to the USDA, 1 in 6 Americans don't know where their next meal will come from, one-third of whom are children.

To address this critical issue, Walmart has teamed up with Forgotten Harvest, Metro Detroit’s only food rescue operation, to help food-insecure individuals and families. Through CBS EcoMedia’s WellnessAd program, Walmart will fund the basic needs of Forgotten Harvest’s Mobile Pantry Project for a full year at Liberty Family Outreach. Walmart’s support will provide nutritious food to 400 underserved families per week, distributing a total of 1.3 million pounds of food.

Forgotten Harvest’s partnership with Walmart unites a success nonprofit driving hunger from the Detroit community with a community-focused brand who’s uniquely positioned to help elevate and solve the issue. Through its Fighting Hunger Commitment, Walmart has pledged to contribute $2 billion in cash and food to our nation’s food banks by 2015.

“Walmart and the Walmart Foundation are very pleased to support the Forgotten Harvest Food Bank and are committed to helping those in need in the communities we serve,” said Anne Hatfield, Director of Communications, Walmart. “Food insecurity is a major issue in the United States and Walmart is proud to support Forgotten Harvest as they effect positive change in the community, especially for those most in need.”

The mission of Forgotten Harvest is to relieve hunger in the Detroit metropolitan community by rescuing surplus, prepared and perishable food and donating it to emergency food providers. The donated food, which would otherwise go to waste, is delivered free-of-charge to 280 emergency food providers in the Metro Detroit area.

“The support of the Walmart Foundation and our local Walmart and Sam’s Club stores has been instrumental to our success in increasing annual distribution to more than 45 million pounds of fresh, nutritious food for our community’s hungry,” said Forgotten Harvest Chief Development Officer Melinda Conway Callahan. “Our metro Detroit food rescue partnership with 22 Walmarts and 10 Sam’s Clubs that has provided 15 million pounds of food for our community's hungry since 2008. We are deeply grateful for the on-going support of Walmart, having been the recipient of two critical truck replacements and a generous $50,000 grant in just the past year.”

Forgotten Harvest’s Mobile Pantry Project allows the nonprofit to serve more of the underserved and deliver fresh food directly into pockets of communities that have few or no emergency food providers. The Mobile Pantry Project is a very cost-effective way to distribute food to those who need it since it doesn’t require a building, significant staffing or refrigeration on the agencies’ part.

Food for each mobile pantry is carefully selected at the distribution center, loaded onto refrigerated trucks, and delivered to 69 mobile pantry sites. The Mobile Pantry Project distributed 18.7 million pounds of food in 2013, and will provide more than 22 million pounds in 2014.

“It is simply unacceptable that even one person should go hungry in America,” said Paul Polizzotto, founder and president of CBS EcoMedia, Inc . “We’ve made it our mission to address the hunger epidemic in America through our WellnessAd program. We thank Walmart for making such a positive, quantifiable impact on the lives of so many individuals and families in Detroit.”

Earlier this year, Walmart and Forgotten Harvest teamed up to defeat hunger together with the first annual Defeat Hunger Bowl campaign. Michiganders had the opportunity to participate in a much more impactful and rewarding bowl during Super Bowl season. Non-perishable food items were accepted at donation bins placed inside 28 Walmart locations in metro Detroit. Former Detroit wide receiver Nate Burleson appeared at Walmart to help rally fans and collect donations to kick off this annual event.

About Philanthropy at Walmart

Walmart and the Walmart Foundation are committed to helping people live better through philanthropic efforts. By operating globally and giving back locally, Walmart is uniquely positioned to address the needs of the communities it serves and make a significant social impact within its core areas of giving: Hunger Relief & Healthy Eating, Sustainability, Career Opportunity and Women’s Economic Empowerment. Walmart and the Walmart Foundation are leading the fight against hunger in the United States with a $2 billion commitment through 2015. Walmart has donated more than 1 billion meals to those in need across the country. To learn more about Walmart’s giving, visit foundation.walmart.com.

About Forgotten Harvest

Forgotten Harvest was formed in 1990 to fight two problems: hunger and waste. Forgotten Harvest rescued 45.5 million pounds of food last year by collecting surplus prepared and perishable food from 455 sources, including grocery stores, fruit and vegetable markets, restaurants, caterers, dairies, farmers, wholesale food distributors and other Health Department-approved sources. This donated food, which would otherwise go to waste, is delivered free-of-charge to 280 emergency food providers in the metro Detroit area. Learn more about Forgotten Harvest and how to help drive hunger from our community at www.forgottenharvest.org.

About CBS EcoMedia Inc.

At EcoMedia, we’re propelled by the desire to create positive social change; that’s been our mission since we founded the company in 2002.  In 2010, after successfully partnering with CBS on a wide range of environmental projects, EcoMedia became the newest addition to the CBS Corporation portfolio, exponentially scaling our reach across television, radio, interactive, publishing and outdoor media. 

Through our patent-pending EcoAd, WellnessAd and EducationAd programs, an innovative twist on traditional advertising, advertisers are able to support much-needed local projects which in turn creates jobs, saves taxpayer money and improves the quality of life in communities nationwide.  In the process, we’re fundamentally altering the advertising landscape, elevating the ordinary, traditional commercial – and media, in general – into a catalyst for tangible, quantifiable social change.  Please visit ecomediacbs.com, like us at facebook.com/EcoMediaCBS or follow us at Twitter.com/EcoMediaCBS

By participating in EcoMedia’s EcoAd, WellnessAd and EducationAd advertising programs, EcoMedia’s advertisers agree to provide funding for projects we believe will have a beneficial effect upon the environment, health and/or education within local communities.  EcoMedia’s advertising programs are not certification programs nor are the EcoAd, WellnessAd or EducationAd logos seals of approval. EcoMedia does not in any way certify, endorse or make any representations about EcoMedia program advertisers, their products or services.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

CBS EcoMedia

Lindsay Brown

Director of Communications

Lindsay.Brown@ecomediacbs.com/212.975.1989