CenturyLink employees, communities and Foundation contribute more than $1.9 million during national food drive

MONROE, La., June 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE: CTL) employees and local communities contributed more than $907,000 in the 2017 CenturyLink Backpack Buddies Food Drive, which took place June 5-16. The drive supported over 140 food banks in communities the company serves across the United States.

To further support the annual food drive, the CenturyLink Clarke M. Williams Foundation contributed a $1 million match to local food bank beneficiaries based on the amount of donations they received through the online donation site. Food banks that offer backpack programs were asked to direct 50 percent of their gifts from the CenturyLink Clarke M. Williams Foundation to those programs.

Food Banks can provide an average of five meals for each dollar they receive. Therefore, the CenturyLink Backpack Buddies Food Drive will help provide over nine million meals throughout its communities.

Since its inception in 2009, donations from the CenturyLink Backpack Buddies Food Drive have provided more than 56 million meals across the country. The goals of the yearly drive are to generate donations for local food banks and help raise awareness of the need for backpack programs.

Backpack programs are crucial to children who rely on school breakfasts and lunches to meet their nutritional needs each day. These programs provide nutritional, shelf-stable meals for at-risk students during weekends and school breaks.

"We're happy to have partnered with so many local agencies in the communities CenturyLink serves to support their efforts to fight hunger," said CenturyLink's Manager of Community Relations Kristy LaCroix. "We hope that our food drive has helped raise awareness of the hunger relief needs across our markets, as well as across the nation."

According to Feeding America, the nation's largest hunger relief organization, their network provides emergency food assistance to an estimated 42.2 million people each year, including 13 million children and five million seniors.

About CenturyLink

CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) is a global communications and IT services company focused on connecting its customers to the power of the digital world. CenturyLink offers network and data systems management, big data analytics, managed security services, hosting, cloud, and IT consulting services. The company provides broadband, voice, video, advanced data and managed network services over a robust 265,000-route-mile U.S. fiber network and a 360,000-route-mile international transport network. Visit CenturyLink for more information.

SOURCE CenturyLink