For kids who count on their school cafeteria for regular meals, summertime can bring heightened hunger and anxiety into their lives. Instead of having fun in the sun and taking an enjoyable break from the school year, many families struggle with tough trade-offs between food and other necessities in the challenging summer months. Community food banks provide a lifeline for food-insecure families with nowhere else to turn.
With summer just around the corner, GSF Foundation Committees recently engaged in the “Focus on Food” initiative during the month of May to support local food banks in their efforts to alleviate hunger. To help children and families struggling with food insecurity in the months ahead, 20 local Foundation committees have made a grant to eligible 501(c)(3) food banks through an expedited process with matching national GSF Foundation donations up to $5,000 per local food bank grant. This year’s total of $180,000 in grants to food banks will provide the equivalent of 763,970 meals for children and families all around the United States!
“Our local GSFF committees around the U.S. have come together to make a focused impact on food insecurity in the communities where our associates live and work,” said Vanessa Hugon, Programs and Development Manager, GSF Foundation. “From grant-making matches to volunteering with food banks, associates teamed up to help end hunger as part of our Foundation’s core programming.”
This year’s participating GSFF Committees include: GSF Burleson, GSF City of Industry Manufacturing, GSF Irvine, GSF Opelika, KanPak Kansas, KanPak New York, QCD Albuquerque, QCD Charlotte, QCD Dallas, QCD Fontana, QCD Frisco, QCD Las Vegas, QCD Los Angeles, QCD Miami, QCD Orlando, QCD Portland, QCD San Antonio, QCD Seattle, QCD Suffolk, and QCD Waipahu.
A leading supplier to the foodservice industry for 75 years, GSF today feeds more than one billion people worldwide every day. Associates across GSF’s food manufacturing and distribution businesses have a deep connection to fighting hunger. Since 2002 when the GSF Foundation formed 20 years ago, associates have donated millions of meals to vulnerable community members and volunteered their time shelving donations in food pantries, gleaning produce from fields, and distributing groceries to neighbors in need.