Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, which recently opened two new stores in the Philadelphia region in Mount Airy and East Norriton, kicked off its 11th annual ‘Independence from Hunger’ campaign on June 23.

The campaign, which encompasses all of the grocery chain’s stores nationwide, is a drive to combat food insecurity and will accept both cash donations and bags of non-perishable food between June 23 and July 31.

There are a few ways customers can do this when visiting their local store. The first is called ‘Give $5, get $5,’ and allows customers to donate $5 in an in-store transaction or online to receive a $5 coupon on their next purchase over $25. Customers also have the option to purchase a pre-made bag of food, which then gets donated. The final way is for a donation to be made at the register of $1, $5, or rounding up change. 

Those donations will then go to local organizations that partnered with each store for the campaign. If made online, the donation goes towards the Alameda Food Bank in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

In Philadelphia, the partnering organizations are Philly Food Rescue and Martha’s Choice Marketplace.

Both organizations work to limit food waste by redistributing surplus food from other sources to those who need it.

According to USDA statistics from 2019, 13.7 million households in the U.S. suffer from food insecurity — defined as “uncertain of having or unable to acquire, enough food to meet the needs of all their members because they had insufficient money or other resources for food.”

In Philadelphia, according to Feeding America, there were more than 225,000 people facing food insecurity before COVID-19 in 2019.

As a result of COVID-19, Feeding America data estimates that as many as 45 million people suffer from food insecurity in 2021, with 13 million of them being children.

Those are also just estimates, as the real number may be higher given how COVID-19 shutdowns left millions without work and the economy is slowly building itself back.

When speaking on Grocery Outlet Bargain Market’s efforts with the Independence from Hunger (IFH) campaign, CEO Eric Lindbergh, said it goes back to the grocery chain’s mission of commitment to the community.

“Our main focus is offering value and giving back to our local communities,” he said.

Lindbergh also said that this year’s 11th annual IFH campaign also coincides with the 75th anniversary of Grocery Outlet Bargain Market. First opened in California in 1946, the budget grocery chain has since expanded nationwide, with stores in Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Nevada, in addition to those in California and Pennsylvania.

Since the IFH campaign launched in 2011, it has raised $11 million for organizations fighting food insecurity nationwide.