How Wal-Mart’s $2-Billion Gift to Fight Hunger Works
June 24, 2011 | Read Time: 1 minute
As food banks face growing demand, they are increasingly seeking ways to obtain groceries that would otherwise go to waste, but they face a big challenge in getting fresh food to people before it spoils, notes NPR.
Now Wal-Mart and Feeding America, the big nonprofit antihunger group, are working together to make the system more efficient. Wal-Mart last year committed $2-billion, mostly in food donations, to help feed low-income people.
In a visit to Johnson City, Tenn., NPR examines how food is collected both from Wal-Mart and other places using refrigerated trucks donated by the discount retailer.
It then traces the process of getting the food to a Salvation Army soup kitchen, a local food bank, and a mobile food pantry that travels throughout rural Tennessee. In most cases, the food is available for needy people to eat less than two days after it leaves supermarkets and other stores.
