To a backdrop of applause, cheers and honks, 35 brand new Walmart trucks left in a caravan from Madison, Wisconsin last Tuesday, headed for Feeding America network food banks across the country.
From California to Florida, the trucks will impact 35 communities in 24 states. That is almost half the country! Not only are these food banks receiving trucks, but they are also getting a truckload’s worth of food from Walmart.
Feeding America has never benefitted from a truck donation of this magnitude – it is truly groundbreaking. The trucks will be used in the Store Donation Program, through which our food banks can rescue product from local retailers. Walmart is a longtime leader in the program and donated these trucks in response to an increased need for trucks by our food banks.
Because they are refrigerated, the trucks will safely and securely transport the products that are needed the most: protein. This means meats, milk, eggs – all the most nutritious items that are hardest to get and cost the most.
So many obstacles are eliminated by these trucks. But this donation is more than trucks – it means that people across the country will have nutritious food. And we have Walmart to thank.
A few weeks ago, I got a phone call that I won’t soon forget. It was from a woman who works at one of the food banks that received a truck. She had just gotten the news and called to express her gratitude. She told me that she didn’t know who else to call and could I please pass along her thanks to all the right people. Fighting back tears, she told me that her food bank picks up food from 18 Walmart locations, three times a week. She said they have two trucks. “One that’s in the shop more often than not,” she told me. This new truck from Walmart, she said, means that they can help even more people survive the most challenging time in their lives. Before we hung up, she said, “Thank you, Walmart and Feeding America. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
As you hear Feeding America President and CEO Vicki Escarra say in this video, Walmart is our top corporate partner in the fight against hunger, with more than 90 million pounds of food donated to Feeding America. Each of these trucks have the capacity to transport 1.5 million pounds of food – meaning in total, they can bring up to 52.5 million more pounds of food into Feeding America’s network of food banks.
In the words of the woman who called me last month: thank you, thank you, thank you.