The purchase of reusable grocery bags by customers of Giant Food Stores has generated over $42,000 for the anti-litter and beautification activities of Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful thanks to a special Earth Day promotion.

In honor of Earth Day, Giant Food Stores encouraged its customers throughout Pennsylvania to go green. As a result, more than 141,000 reusable grocery bags were sold at Giant locations during April and Giant made the commitment to donate five cents from each bag sold in April to Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful.

From the reusable bag sales and the donation of the park benches, Giant’s contribution to Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful totaled $42,472.

In addition, Giant donated 94 park benches made from recycled plastic shopping bags for local Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful beautification projects in Dauphin, Cumberland, Perry, Lancaster, York, Lehigh, Northhampton, Chester, and Franklin counties.

“Our customers answered the call to go green in April and we hope they continue doing their part to help the environment every month throughout the year,” said Denny Hopkins, vice president for advertising and marketing, Giant Food Stores. “We will continue to sell reusable bags and encourage customers to recycle their plastic grocery bags by bringing them back to the store. Since 1997, more than 1,300 park benches have been donated to a variety of organizations including fire departments, churches, schools, parks, playgrounds and libraries to help beautify local communities.”

Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful is an organization that promotes and protects the state’s natural and community environments through education, preventing litter, beautifying Pennsylvania and minimizing the negative impacts of waste.

Giant Food Stores, LLC, one of the leading supermarket chains in the U.S., currently operates stores in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia under the names of Giant Food Stores, Martin's Food Markets and FoodSource.

As a company, Giant is proud to work with hundreds of local organizations in the communities it serves and has a long-standing commitment to eradicate hunger and improve the quality of life for children.

6/13/2008