Food Lion Customers and Associates Raise More Than $500,000 During Two-Week Spring Hunger Has A Cure Campaign to Benefit Feeding America®

May 22, 2012 at 3:39 PM EDT

Dateline:

SALISBURY, N.C.

Proceeds Provide 3.7 Million Meals to Those in Need

"We are proud to work with Feeding America to help eliminate hunger in our communities."

Food Lion customers and associates raised more than $500,000through its latest "Hunger Has A Cure" Campaign, which supports Feeding America's network of local food banks. Feeding America will use the funds to provide 3.7 million meals to those in need.

The successful two-week campaign, which ran April 4 through April 17, allowed customers to donate $1, $3 or any other amount of their choice at checkout.

"We are ecstatic about the more than 3.7 million meals that we were able to provide to families in need," said Bill Garcia, manager of community relations for Food Lion.  "We are proud to work with Feeding America to help eliminate hunger in our communities."

Now that the campaign has ended, 75 percent of the proceeds will be distributed to local Feeding America food banks in the Food Lion footprint where the funds were raised. The other 25 percent will be donated to the national Feeding America organization. Feeding America is able to help provide eight meals per every $1 donated.

In addition to area food banks receiving the proceeds of the Hunger Has A Cure Campaign, five food banks will receive an additional $5,000 from Food Lion to honor the extraordinary support from customers in five top fundraising areas. Those food banks are the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina in Raleigh, N.C., Maryland Food Bank in Baltimore, Md., Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, Inc., in Verona, Va., Southwestern Virginia Second Harvest Food Bank in Salem, Va., and Feedmore Central Virginia Food Bank in Richmond, Va.

Through efforts such as this, Food Lion raises community awareness of hunger needs, funding for food banks and contributes more than 37 million pounds of food donations annually to Feeding America. Last year, with the support of our generous customers, the "Hunger Has a Cure Campaign" raised $440,000 and 1.4 million pounds of food to help families seeking food assistance through the Feeding America network.

About Food Lion

Food Lion, based in Salisbury, N.C., is a company of Delhaize America, the U.S. division of Brussels-based Delhaize Group (NYSE: DEG) and operates more than 1,100 supermarkets. The company employs approximately 57,000 associates delivering quality products, low prices and service to customers in 10 Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states. For more information, visit www.foodlion.com.

About Feeding America

Feeding America provides low-income individuals and families with the fuel to survive and even thrive. As the nation's leading domestic hunger-relief charity, our network members supply food to more than 37 million Americans each year, including 14 million children and 3 million seniors. Serving the entire United States, more than 200 member food banks support 61,000 agencies that address hunger in all of its forms. For more information on how you can fight hunger in your community and across the country, visit http://www.feedingamerica.org. Find us on Facebook at facebook.com/FeedingAmerica or follow our news on Twitter at twitter.com/FeedingAmerica.