LOS ANGELES, Sept. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Kroger
Co. (NYSE: KR), of which Southern
California-based supermarket companies Ralphs and Food 4
Less are subsidiaries, has announced a new, national effort aimed
at ending hunger in the communities Kroger calls home and
eliminating waste across the company by 2025.
"No family in a community we serve should ever go hungry, and no
food in a store we operate should ever go to waste," said
Rodney McMullen, Kroger's chairman
and CEO.
Across the United States, 42
million Americans struggle with hunger. At the same time, an
estimated 72 billion pounds of food ends up in a landfill every
year.
"More than 40 percent of the food produced in the U.S. each year
goes unconsumed, while one in eight people struggle with hunger.
That just doesn't make sense," Mr. McMullen said. "As America's
grocer and one of the largest retailers in the world, we are
committing to doing something about it."
Kroger's visionary Zero Hunger | Zero Waste plan includes the
bold commitments outlined below, in keeping with the company's
Purpose to Feed the Human SpiritTM.
Kroger is also crowdsourcing for solutions, asking communities,
partners and other stakeholders to help provide ideas, feedback and
best practices as the effort evolves. In addition, Kroger is
working closely with both Feeding America and the World Wildlife
Fund (WWF), our longstanding partners, to develop transparent
metrics to track our progress.
"We know that meals matter – families that share meals together
have children who do better in every aspect of their lives. That's
why we imagine a world without hunger and food waste," said
Bryan Kaltenbach, president of Food
4 Less.
"We are inviting everyone who is passionate about feeding people
and protecting the planet to join us in our mission to end hunger
in our communities and eliminate waste across our company by 2025,"
added Ralphs' president Valerie
Jabbar.
"Hunger exists in every county and affects every demographic
group in this country," said Diana
Aviv, CEO of Feeding America®. "If we are to
succeed in creating a hunger-free America, it will take the
combined efforts of a variety of groups – policymakers, nonprofits,
individuals and corporations – working together with the 200
network member food banks. Kroger is stepping up to the challenge
and we look forward to working with them on their Zero Hunger |
Zero Waste plan."
"The production and consumption of food has the largest
environmental footprint of any human activity. By wasting less
food, we can reduce the environmental impact of food production
while also conserving biodiversity and wildlife habitat," said
Sheila Bonini, senior vice
president, Private Sector Engagement, WWF. "Kroger's zero waste
commitment sets a new standard for food waste reduction goals and
will have a ripple effect across their supply chain and
industry."
Zero Hunger | Zero Waste: A Plan to End Hunger
In Kroger Communities and Eliminate Waste In The Kroger Co.
- Establish a $10 million
innovation fund within The Kroger Co. Foundation to
address hunger, food waste and the paradoxical relationship between
the two.
- Accelerate food donations to provide three billion meals by
2025 to feed people facing hunger in the places Kroger calls
home, including the communities served by Ralphs and Food 4 Less
stores in Southern California. In
partnership with its customers, associates and other partners,
Kroger has donated one billion meals via combined food and funds
donations since 2013.
- Donate not just more food,
more balanced meals via Kroger's
industry-leading fresh food donations program. Kroger has been
feeding people facing hunger since the company's inception in 1883,
and as a founding partner of Feeding America, the nation's largest
hunger relief organization, Kroger has longstanding partners with
food banks across the country. Today, Kroger, Ralphs and Food 4
Less store associates are empowered to identify meat, produce,
dairy and bakery items for donation that remain safe, fresh and
nutritious. Last year, Kroger donated the equivalent of 46 million
fresh meals to local food banks in addition to dry goods and
shelf-stable groceries. Through the first half of this year, Ralphs
and Food 4 Less stores have donated more than four-million pounds
of fresh product to food banks in Southern California.
- Advocate for public policy solutions to address hunger
and to shorten the line at food banks, lobbying for continued
funding of federal hunger relief programs, and for public policies
that help communities prevent and divert waste from landfills,
including recycling, composting and sustainability programs that
can be scaled for maximum impact.
- Achieve all Zero Waste 2020 goals outlined in the annual
Kroger sustainability report.
- Eliminate food waste by 2025 through prevention,
donation and diversion efforts in all stores and across Kroger.
Develop transparent reporting on food loss and waste.
- Join forces with both new and longstanding partners to
identify opportunities, leverage data, and determine where by
working together Kroger can help the most.
- Transform communities and improve the health of millions
of Americans by 2025 by making balanced meals more readily
available, sharing scalable food waste solutions with other
retailers, restaurants and local governments, and working within
Kroger's supply chain to reduce farm-to-fork food loss.
"Zero Hunger | Zero Waste is a vision for the America we want to
help create with our associates, customers and stakeholders," Mr.
McMullen said. "This is our moonshot.'"
"We recognize we have a lot of work to do," he added. "But we
know when Kroger's more than 443,000 associates put their passion
to work to make something happen, we can uplift our communities,
the planet and each other."
Follow our journey and join the conversation at thekrogerco.com
and #ZeroHungerZeroWaste.
At The Kroger Co., Ralphs and Food 4 Less, we are dedicated to
our Purpose: to Feed The Human SpiritTM.
About Ralphs
Ralphs Grocery Company was founded in
1873 and currently operates 192 supermarkets from its headquarters
in Los Angeles. Last year, Ralphs
contributed more than $6 million to
support the communities served by its stores. Ralphs is a
subsidiary of The Kroger Co., (NYSE:KR), one of the nation's
largest food retailers, based in Cincinnati, Ohio. For more about Ralphs,
please visit our web site at www.ralphs.com
About Food 4 Less
Headquartered in Los Angeles, Food 4 Less operates 130
price-impact, warehouse-format supermarkets under the banners Food
4 Less in Southern California,
Illinois and Indiana, and Foods Co in Central and
Northern California. Last year,
Food 4 Less and Foods Co combined to contribute more than
$4 million to support the communities
served by its stores. Food 4 Less is a subsidiary of The Kroger
Co., (NYSE:KR), one of the nation's largest grocery retailers,
headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.
For more information about Food 4 Less, please visit our website at
www.food4less.com.
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SOURCE Ralphs Grocery Company