Wegmans Doubles ‘Fill The BackPack’ Campaign Goal

Staff members and employees are all smiles at Wegmans' Jamestown location this week after the store hit a milestone in its most recent community campaign.

The local supermarket announced that it more than doubled its goal with regard to poundage purchased for its annual "Fill the BackPack" food drive campaign to assist Western New York schoolchildren in need.

The store's "Fill the BackPack" campaign is coordinated in conjunction with the Food Bank of WNY's BackPack program, which aims to help students who rely on free or reduced lunch at school by providing them with take-home bags of food each Friday throughout the school year. Wegmans' Buffalo division, which includes the Jamestown store location, was able to donate 193,000 pounds of food to the cause, surpassing its division-wide goal of 160,000 pounds.

Of that amount, the Jamestown store was responsible for nearly 13,000 pounds, having raised a total of 12,728 pounds -- more than twice its established goal of 6,000 pounds. The two-week campaign kicked off locally on Sunday, June 4, and ran through Sunday.

"Not only did we double our goal for this year, but we almost tripled the amount of pounds that we raised last year," said Ericka Carpenter, front end team leader and "Fill the BackPack" campaign coordinator. "I think that's amazing for the amount of kids that we can help just based on that, and I hope that we can do just as much more next year. I'm really glad it went as smoothly as it did, and that we could help as many people as we did."

Carpenter said much of the success of this year's campaign could be owed to the more streamlined approach taken by the store in the education of its employees and customers about the fact that the food donated is distributed locally and throughout the Western New York region. Additionally, she said the fact that customers could purchase pre-packaged bags of food as opposed to single items helped to increase the amount of poundage donated to the campaign.

Danielle Amico, service area manager, said much of the community's support of the campaign may have come from the knowledge that seven Chautauqua County schools participate in the Food Bank of WNY's BackPack program.

"I think that probably hit home for a lot of families, and helped them to realize how much of an impact we can have in our community," Amico said. "And I also think some of (our success this year) had to do with the fun and excitement that our team felt by participating this year. We really made it a full-store event. All our departments had employees donate, and the team with the most donations won a lunch on the store.

"We wanted to make sure our staff knows the importance of giving back and living by the values of our Wegmans family, and to empower our teams to do the most we can for the community that has supported us through the years."

The Food Bank of WNY's BackPack program is in 41 schools throughout its four-county service area -- which includes Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Erie and Niagara counties. Each take-home bag afforded to schools via the program is filled with items like cereal, applesauce, fruit juice, shelf-stable milk, canned soups and healthy snacks.

The Food Bank of WNY serves approximately 43,000 children and infants through member agencies, and through programs such as "Fill the Backpack." For more information about the organization and its programs, visit foodbankwny.org.