This Thanksgiving season, families across America can thank Wal-Mart for meals delivered to them courtesy of the megastore. The Wal-Mart Foundation provided refrigerator trucks filled with fresh food products to Feeding America and Meals on Wheels to kick off their holiday charity.
Wal-Mart and the Wal-Mart Foundation made donations valued at $32 million this week to charitable organizations across the U.S. that help fight the threat of American hunger.
The donated refrigerator trucks were inspired by the issues food banks have been having in safely transporting food donated by Wal-Mart and other grocers. Feeding America estimated that the trucks will enable food banks to transport up to 52.5 million pounds of food – or enough for 41 million meals – a year.
Wal-Mart donated an additional $2.2 million grant to Meals on Wheels to help them upgrade delivery vehicles, stoves, and freezers. This is estimated to increase the number of meals one in nine seniors receives through food banks this year.
"In this economy, families and seniors across the country who rely on food banks have been hit especially hard," said Margaret McKenna, president of the Wal-Mart Foundation. The recent donation of food and refrigerator trucks is part of Wal-Mart’s continued efforts to "eradicate hunger in America."
Wal-Mart is Feeding America’s biggest donor to date. Feeding America is the largest domestic hunger relief charity in the U.S.; each year they provide food to more than 25 million low-income people facing hunger in America, including more than nine million children and nearly three million seniors.
This year they are happy Wal-Mart and other grocer’s donations can reach more Americans thanks to new government policies. Vicki Escarra, president and CEO of Feeding America says she "commends Congress and the Administration" for making the largest benefit increase "in the history of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program."
She is optimistic that Feeding America’s public and charitable sectors can "keep pace… with the dramatically increasing needs for food assistance." 
