BJ's Charitable Foundation Donates $50,000 to Help Feeding Tampa Bay Provide Healthy Summer Meals for Kids

"BJ's is committed to nourishing our communities and helping families thrive, and we're excited to support Feeding Tampa Bay's Hunger-Free Summer Mobile Pantry Program," said Kirk Saville, executive director, BJ's Charitable Foundation. "Hunger-relief programs are crucial for children and families who lose access to school lunches in the summer. Through our partnership with Feeding America, we're helping to provide access to fresh, healthy food to families when school is out for the summer." 

With BJ's $50,000 grant, Feeding Tampa Bay will increase the number of mobile food pantries it operates to 114, enabling the food bank to reach more children and expand its efforts to mitigate childhood hunger.   

"Feeding Tampa Bay tries to reach more families and children each year through our mobile pantry program," said Thomas Mantz, executive director, Feeding Tampa Bay. "During the summer, child hunger spikes as students no longer receive their daily meals at school. With BJ's generous support, we will be able to increase the number of healthy meals and snacks we distribute and increase our impact on child hunger this summer."           

During the school year, more than 22 million children receive free or reduced-price meals through the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs. In the summer months, fewer than 4 million children receive free or reduced-priced meals through the USDA Summer Food Service Program. From mobile and school pantries to congregate meal sites in public areas like summer camps, the Feeding America network operates different program models to increase the number of meals provided to children over the summer.

Since 2009, BJ's has provided ongoing support to Feeding America through the BJ's Charitable Foundation and BJ's Feeding Communities® program, helping local food banks successfully expand their programs to reach wider and more diverse audiences.

In addition to summer programming and capacity-building grants from the BJ's Charitable Foundation, BJ's has secured over 70 million pounds of donated food, including fresh produce, frozen meats and fish, baked goods and dairy items, and helped distribute 58 million meals to neighbors in need through the BJ's Feeding Communities® program.

To learn more about the BJ's, visit BJs.com.

About BJ's Wholesale Club Holdings, Inc.
Headquartered in Westborough, Massachusetts, BJ's Wholesale Club Holdings, Inc. is the leading operator of membership warehouse clubs in the Eastern United States. The company currently operates 215 clubs and 134 BJ's Gas® locations in 16 states. 

BJ's provides a one-stop shopping destination filled with top-quality, leading brands, including its exclusive Wellsley Farms^® and Berkley Jensen^® brands, along with USDA Choice meats, premium produce and delicious organics, many in supermarket sizes. BJ's is also the only major membership warehouse club to accept all manufacturers' coupons.

About Feeding Tampa Bay
Founded in 1982, Feeding Tampa Bay is the largest food rescue and distribution organization in the community, serving a food-insecure population of more than 700,000 people in a 10-county area. Feeding Tampa Bay recovers surplus food donations from local growers, manufacturers, supermarkets, and organized community food drives and distributes it to those in need through a partnership network of more than 500 faith-based and other incorporated nonprofit hunger relief organizations. Over the past five years, Feeding Tampa Bay supplied more than 100 million pounds of food, enough to provide more than 3 million meals every month to those who would otherwise go hungry. www.FeedingTampaBay.org

SOURCE BJ's Wholesale Club

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