Kraft Heinz commits $12 million in support of communities impacted by COVID-19 outbreak
As part of this worldwide commitment, the company announced $6.6 million donation to Feeding America nationwide network of food banks.
As the world continue to address the very real implications of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, Kraft Heinz Co., co-headquartered in Chicago and Pittsburgh, said it committed to donating $12 million globally to ensure people across the globe have the food they need during this challenging time. As part of this international commitment, the company has announced a donation valued at $6.6 million to help ensure American consumers in need have the food they need during this challenging time. Kraft Heinz also is working on other commitments with current community and food bank partners in other countries where it does business, including Italy, Spain, Australia and the Netherlands.
The company said is giving $1.9 million in cash to Feeding America, the largest domestic hunger-relief organization in the United States, to help support food banks located in and near places where the company has offices and plants, such as the Greater Chicago Food Depository and the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. Feeding America’s COVID-19 Response Fund will help food banks across the country as they support communities impacted by the pandemic, enabling them to secure the resources they need to efficiently serve some of the most vulnerable people.
Kraft Heinz also said it is donating $4.7 million in its food products to Feeding America member food banks.
This $12 million contribution builds upon previous coronavirus-related donations Kraft Heinz made in China, one of the countries most impacted by the pandemic and where the company has both factories and offices. During China’s outbreak earlier this year, the company partnered with Babytree, one of the largest parenting websites in China, to donate more than 4,000 boxes of Heinz infant food to families in need through the Shanghai Fosun Foundation. The company’s products were delivered to 25 hospitals in five Chinese provinces most severely affected by the outbreak.
In the U.K., Heinz is partnering with Magic Breakfast, a charity that provides healthy school breakfasts to hungry and malnourished children in disadvantaged areas, to secure 12 million free breakfasts for school children who need them the most. The partnership equates to one breakfast a day, five days a week over eight weeks, for school children in the U.K. who would usually benefit from access to breakfast club programs that have recently been cancelled as a result of schools closing, Kraft Heinz said.
In Canada, the company will be making a series of donations to Food Banks Canada, which serves 650 food banks, in the coming weeks, starting with more than 100,000 boxes of KD/Kraft Dinner, the country’s most popular macaroni and cheese brand.
“We at Kraft Heinz have an enormously important role to play in making sure people have the food and nourishment they need — and that’s especially critical at this challenging moment,” said Kraft Heinz CEO Miguel Patricio. “This donation is an immediate and impactful way we can help our neighbors in need around the world and help fill this critical gap. We are very pleased to make these donations on behalf of our worldwide employees, who are working especially hard during this time to provide consumers and their families with products they know and trust. We are all in this together and are reminded that we’re only as strong as our most vulnerable.”
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