CenturyLink employees, communities to participate in national food drive
CenturyLink Foundation to support efforts with up to $1 million match
CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE: CTL) will hold its annual CenturyLink Backpack Buddies Food Drive June 1-12 in hundreds of company locations across the country. As part of this effort, CenturyLink is inviting local community members to join employees in supporting Three Square.
CenturyLink started its annual Backpack Buddies Food Drive in 2009. The goal of the drive is to generate food and monetary donations for local food banks and help raise awareness of the need for backpack programs in the company’s markets. Over the past six years, the drive, along with the match from the CenturyLink Clarke M. Williams Foundation, has contributed more than 28 million pounds of food and equivalent financial donations to local food banks across the country. Community members who want to help support the drive can bring food donations to Three Square’s warehouse and volunteer room. More information on Three Square’s needs and a list of acceptable donations can be found here: bit.ly/ThreeSquareWishList
The CenturyLink Clarke M. Williams Foundation has pledged to match donations made through this drive at $1 per pound of food up to 1 million pounds nationwide. By leveraging this match, donors can increase the impact of their gift and help provide more meals to those in need in their community. In 2014, the CenturyLink Food Drive resulted in the equivalent of 11.2 million pounds of food being donated to more than 200 food banks across the country.
“We’re proud to partner with Three Square to support their backpack program,” said Jeremy Ferkin, CenturyLink’s vice president of network operations for Utah and Nevada. “Backpack programs are crucial to children who rely on school breakfasts and lunches to meet their nutritional needs each day. We hope this drive will help bridge the gap those children experience during weekends and school breaks. We invite the public to become a CenturyLink Backpack Buddy by joining us in supporting this effort.”
“Gifts like this are critical to our mission of providing wholesome food to hungry people in our area,” says Brian Burton, President and CEO of Three Square. “We are very thankful for community partners like CenturyLink who generously give back because they make a huge impact in the community; what would have been three meals from a $1 donation, will become six meals.”
According to 2014 statistics provided by Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger relief organization, the Feeding America network provides emergency food assistance to an estimated 46.5 million people annually including 12 million children and 7 million seniors.
About CenturyLink
CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) is a global communications, hosting, cloud and IT services company enabling millions of customers to transform their businesses and their lives through innovative technology solutions. CenturyLink offers network and data systems management, Big Data analytics and IT consulting, and operates more than 55 data centers in North America, Europe and Asia. The company provides broadband, voice, video, data and managed services over a robust 250,000-route-mile U.S. fiber network and a 300,000-route-mile international transport network. Visit www.CenturyLink.com for more information.
About Three Square
Established in 2007 to provide hunger relief, Three Square Food Bank offers wholesome, nutritious food to nonprofit and faith-based organizations, schools and feeding sites that serve a wide range of Southern Nevadans. A national model project inspired by Founder Eric Hilton with a grant provided by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Three Square is a community collaborative partnership with businesses, nonprofit agencies, food distributors, higher education institutions, the Clark County School District, governmental entities, the media and thousands of volunteers to efficiently and effectively work together to serve those in our community struggling with hunger. Three Square currently provides more than 34 million pounds of food and grocery product – the equivalent of more than 28 million meals – per year to more than 1,300 community partners. Three Square is a member of the Feeding America network of food banks. For additional information visit www.threesquare.org. For the latest news and events on Three Square, visit Facebook (ThreeSquareFoodBank) and follow them on Instagram (@threesquarelv) and Twitter (@threesquarelv).
