Times are tough. Whether it’s a friend, a relative or even an immediate family member, we are all seeing the impact of what’s a very difficult time for the American people. The USDA reports that one in six Americans is food insecure—or in simpler terms, at-risk of being hungry. This isn’t the type of hunger that’s brought on by being too busy or too picky to eat something. This is hunger where you worry where your next meal will come from. That is scary.
And while there is still more we can do, we are proud that the annual giving numbers we announced yesterday include the fact that as a company we doubled our donations to U.S. food banks, giving 127 million pounds of nutritious food—nearly 100 million meals—in our last year fiscal year (FYE10). We also increased our giving by 23 percent overall in the U.S. with $467 million in cash and in-kind gifts given in FYE10.
There’s a tremendous feeling of happiness today as we report this increase in giving. It’s not easy, particularly during the current economy, but we’re fortunate that our business is growing and as a result our giving is increasing as well.
From the press release we sent out yesterday, here’s a snapshot of our giving impact:
- More than 93,000 children were fed through a donation to the Boys and Girls Club of America’s summer feeding program,
- Forty-thousand teachers were awarded $100 gift cards as part of Walmart’s Teacher Rewards program, which helps offset expenses for classroom supplies,
- Sixty-nine food banks across America received refrigerated trucks from the Walmart Foundation to help increase their capacity, and
- More than 90,000 bottles of water, 24,000 blankets and more than 20,000 units of medical supplies like gauze and surgical masks were donated in response to the Haiti earthquake, to name a few.
We want to thank our customers, our associates and all of those working on the front lines of nonprofit programs across the country. We hope that our giving in the upcoming year will continue to increase.