Serving Those Who Serve Our Country

Serving Those Who Serve Our Country

Imagine having just enough money to buy food for the week, with nothing left over to pay your utility bills or gas to get to work. Many military and veteran families face these hard choices every day, but at Food Lion, we believe no one should have to make those choices.

“Coming from military and law enforcement background, to be able to serve for a company that reaches out to folks within the military and in the community to let them know there are ways of getting help when you are challenged is just great,” said Charles Campbell, Food Lion store manager in Raeford N.C. and U.S. Navy Veteran.

Recently, Food Lion Feeds announced a new partnership with Operation Homefront to help eliminate some of the impossible choices our military and veteran neighbors face as a part of our commitment to donate one billion more meals by 2025.  Operation Homefront is a national nonprofit that provides military families with critical financial assistance, transitional and permanent housing, and recurring family support programs throughout the year to help ensure their short-term, financial challenges do not cause them to spiral into a long-term financial crisis.  

The partnership with Food Lion Feeds will enable Operation Homefront to broaden its reach and provide critical resources for our local servicemembers, veterans and their families.  By providing, we are helping address food insecurity among military and families.

“We are thrilled Food Lion has chosen Operation Homefront as their Food Lion Feeds partner,” said Margi Kirst, chief development officer of Operation Homefront. “Their support drives our ability to build strong, stable, and secure military families so they can thrive – not simply struggle to get by – in the communities they have worked so hard to protect. We thank Food Lion for their commitment to serving America’s military families.”

By allowing our active-duty military and veteran families to focus on other critical needs, and not where their next meal will come from, we are doing more than simply providing a meal; we’re strengthening families.

This isn’t the only way we support military families. Beginning this year, the Food Lion Feeds Charitable Foundation also began providing Military Hunger grants.  In May of 2019, we provided $150,000 in grants to three food banks for military hunger-relief programs.  Lowcountry Food Bank in Charleston, S.C. is launching a program to fight veteran hunger in the 10 coastal South Carolina counties it serves. Additionally, the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee is establishing a Veterans Serving Veterans program, which will open eight new stationary food pantries at military and veterans’ organizations in eight counties. Finally, the Virginia Peninsula Food Bank is starting pantry distributions on an active military base, the first and only one of its kind in the country.

We are committed to nourishing our neighbors who have served our country and setting them up for success in life, and we look forward to joining our efforts with organizations like Operation Homefront and our Feeding America food bank partners to make an even greater impact in the lives of our military and veteran families.