Baltimore County Public Schools received more than $26,000 from Giant Food to fight food insecurity.
The $26,413 donation was raised during Giant Food's Nourishing Our Youth food initiative.
“We deeply appreciate this generous donation from Giant Food and its customers,” said BCPS Superintendent Dr. Darryl L. Williams in a news release. “Partners such as Giant Food demonstrate enduring community support for our school system and provide resources to enrich our impact on students and communities.”
From June 17 to August 11, Giant Food Stores invited customers to round up their grocery purchases at the register and join in the support of local public school districts’ food and meal programs. With the help of its customers, Giant Food raised more than $765,900 to address the issue of childhood hunger throughout the communities it serves across four states.
“We all know that kids need nutritious meals to grow, learn, and thrive. But too many children across our region struggle to receive a decent meal at lunch when attending school,” said Felis Andrade, director of external communications & community relations at Giant Food in a news release. “Through Giant’s Nourishing Our Youth program, we can give much-needed funds to school districts within our region to support their meal programs. We are incredibly grateful to our outstanding customers for their philanthropic support and thrilled to be able to donate these funds to our local school districts.”
Baltimore County Public schools is the nations 22nd largest school system.
BCPS plans to use the donation to increase oven capacity in its elementary schools, a news release explained.
“The quality of the food we serve is key to supporting a positive learning environment,” said BCPS Food and Nutrition Services Director Jaime Hetzler. “The number of total meals we serve has increased 33 percent since 2012. With the support of grants, we are increasing the oven capacity in elementary schools. When we have the capacity to produce more food onsite, our ability to control the quality of the food in greatly improved and, as a result, we feed more students.”