The Atlanta Community Food Bank announced today a $750,000 grant from Walmart and Feeding America®, part of a continuing, multi-year partnership to strengthen food donation efforts between food banks, partner agencies, and local retailers.

Funded by Walmart and awarded to 13 food banks in the Feeding America network of local food banks, the Retail Agency Capacity Grant equips food banks’ partner agencies, including food pantries and meal programs, with equipment, vehicles and staff to support “food rescue” efforts, in which grocers donate fresh, frozen, and shelf-stable foods to food banks and agency partners.

The Atlanta Community Food Bank is applying the grant funds to the purchase of eight trucks and one van for selected partner agencies. Covington First United Methodist Church, Dawson Community Foodbank, Inc., Never Alone, Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, Reflections of Trinity, Selina Ellis Cares, Southeast Atlanta Seventh Day Baptist, and The River Community will use the trucks and van to conduct direct retail pick-ups at Walmart and Sam’s Club locations. This access to fresh produce and other perishable food items will increase the amount of nutritious and healthy food available to neighbors in need.

“Since 2020, the Atlanta Community Food Bank has increased the amount of fresh produce, meats, and other perishables offered to our partners, and these items now account for 65% percent of the food we distribute. But properly transporting these items requires specialized equipment,” said Kyle Waide, President and CEO of the Atlanta Community Food Bank. “This grant from Walmart allows us to expand our commitment to providing healthy and nutritious food options by providing eight partner agencies with vehicles that can safely transport perishables.”

With these grants, Walmart has donated a total of $15.75 million to 33 food banks and hundreds of partner agencies to increase their capacity to recover and distribute fresh food. These investments have led to substantial increases in the number of weekly donated food pickups through new equipment like refrigerated vans, added staff, and new technology and training.

“Increasing access to food is key to Walmart’s purpose to help people to live better, and we’ve been working with Feeding America for the past 20 years to help local food banks and agencies recover and distribute more food donations,” said Julie Gehrki, Senior Vice President at Walmart and President of the Walmart Foundation. “We’re honored to build on this work through our support of the Atlanta Community Food Bank. We look forward to collaborating to get more fresh food to people who need it.”

This year’s grant announcement continues a celebration of 20 years of partnership between Walmart, Sam’s Club and Feeding America that’s grown into one of the most transformative collaborations in the hunger relief space, with approximately $271 million in donations, including more than $177 million from the company and the Walmart Foundation and nearly $95 million from customers and members. Walmart and Sam’s Club have also donated more than 9 billion pounds of food to the Feeding America network of local food banks and partner agencies since 2006, making them Feeding America’s largest corporate donor.