MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Food insecurity is an ongoing problem that Hy-Vee continues to address with help from suppliers, staff and shoppers.
Last November, 260 Hy-Vee stores across eight states each donated up to 100 meal kits for a local nonprofit partner to distribute to families in need. As many as 80,000 people were served. Meal kits included a turkey, 5-pound bag of potatoes, stuffing mix, corn, green beans, dinner rolls and a pumpkin pie.
In July, Hy-Vee partnered with Kellogg’s, Keurig Dr Pepper and Chobani for its second End Summer Hunger campaign. All month long, customers helped donate meals to families in need each time they purchased select products at a Hy-Vee store. Proceeds from sales are donated to Feeding America to benefit 17 affiliated food banks in our eight-state region.
Feed the Need
End Summer Hunger
Throughout the year, Hy-Vee KidsFit works to bring awareness to childhood hunger. More than 360,000 healthy snacks were donated to over 80 schools to help feed 50,000 kids. The donation was in partnership with MadeGood, Abbot (Pedialyte and PediaSure), Kraft, Kodiak Cakes, GoGo SqueeZ and General Mills.
In April, students at Clay Elementary in Altoona, Iowa, won the Hy-Vee KidsFit Squat Challenge and set the world record for the most dominos made from boxes of cereal. The 3,600 General Mills Cheerios boxes, which spanned more than half a mile in the school hallways, were then donated to students and a local food pantry. The event was a lesson on the domino effect breakfast has on student performance.
To celebrate National Mac & Cheese Day on July 14,
Hy-Vee KidsFit Club All-Stars participated in a Mac-Man Mayhem event where teams of five kids raced through their local stores to collect as many boxes of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese as they could in 90 seconds. Each All-Star winner took home boxes of mac & cheese and 6,000 additional boxes were donated to local food banks across Hy-Vee’s eight states. The Mac-Man Mayhem was held to raise awareness of summer food insecurity for kids while they’re not in school.
Hy-Vee and Hormel Foods team up annually with first responders to hand out 5,000 Hormel Cure 81 hams to families in need in Hy-Vee’s eight-state region under the Hams for the Holidays initiative.
Feeding America estimates more than 42 million people may experience food insecurity this year, including 13 million children. That means 1 in 8 people in America don't have enough to eat.
Hy-Vee donated 2,000 meals to low-income communities through drive-through events for National Family Meals Month.
WHAT our Stores are doing
• Fill the Truck events were held at stores in the Quad Cities of Iowa and Illinois and in Peoria, Illinois, with donated supplies distributed to food banks and nonprofits.
• Quad Cities stores donated $5,000 to the Salvation Army to replenish food banks and provide meals to homeless people. They also donated food baskets to Habitat for Humanity for new homeowners.
• Kansas City, Missouri, area stores donated bags of food to benefit City Union Mission.
food donations:
MEALS FROM THE HEARTLAND:
Des Moines, Iowa, area stores held a large packaging event in February that provided meals for Iowa families in need.
• Galesburg, Illinois, stores joined the fire department in August for Galesburg Gives Back, donating food, water and other items.
• Madison, Wisconsin, area stores currently cater meals to families at the American Family Children’s Hospital and a countywide senior meal program.
FOOD GIVEWAYS:
“Our commitment to eliminate food insecurity is not just writing a check. We execute these initiatives at every level—from Hy-Vee leadership packing Thanksgiving sacks to store employees doing produce and meal giveaways.”
—Brad Waller, Hy-Vee Assistant Vice President, Community Relations