Giant Food Earns Top Score From Human Rights Campaign Foundation
Giant Food, the leading greater Washington, D.C. regional grocery chain, has received a score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2023 Corporate Equality Index, the nation’s foremost benchmarking survey and report measuring corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ+ workplace equality. Giant Food joins the ranks of over 545 major U.S. businesses that also earned top marks this year.
“Giant Food is extremely proud to have earned a score of 100 for the fifth consecutive year on the Corporate Equality Index for the practices we have established to foster and support a diverse and inclusive workplace for our LGBTQ+ team members,” said Brian Wanner, vice president of human resources at Giant Food. “We are committed to embracing and advancing a workplace that represents and celebrates the cultures, backgrounds and experiences of our team members and communities helping create a culture in which we can all grow, care and belong.”
Giant has consistently worked to implement and advance a range of programs, policies and practices to promote inclusivity and diversity. Just this year, the company has introduced or expanded upon several training, education, employee benefit and partnership efforts including:
- Ongoing Gender Inclusivity training for all employees
- Creation of employee LGBTQ+ Benefits Guide
- Creation of employee Gender Transition Guidelines
- Added Restroom Guidelines signage
- Addition of employee pronouns to name and security badges
- Involvement in regional Pride celebrations including Washington, D.C. and Baltimore
“For well over two decades, businesses have played an important role in furthering LGBTQ+ equality by centering employee needs and voices when it comes to workplace inclusion. While there is much more work to be done, year-over-year growth in CEI participation is evidence of a business community that recognizes the responsibility and value in upholding equity and inclusion,” said RaShawn “Shawnie” Hawkins, Human Rights Campaign Sr Director of Workplace Equality.
“Our goal at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation is to work in a spirit of partnership with companies, providing educational resources and leading benchmarking, and collaborating on ways for businesses to support the LGBTQ+ community at a time when we face unprecedented legislative attacks, heightened anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and physical violence. The CEI is an ever-evolving tool – a blueprint that companies can use to show up more effectively in supporting their LGBTQ+ employees and their families.”
The results of the 2023-2024 CEI showcase how U.S.-based companies are promoting LGBTQ+ friendly workplace policies in the United States and abroad. The first year of the CEI included 319 participants, and the 2023-2024 CEI now includes 1,384 participants; further demonstrating the tremendous trajectory of the CEI, a record-breaking 1,340 businesses have non-discrimination protections specific to gender identity, up from just 17 in 2002.
These critical non-discrimination protections cover 21 million employees in the U.S. and around the globe. Giant Food’s efforts in satisfying all the CEI’s criteria earned a score of 100 and the designation as recipient of the Equality 100 Award: Leader in LGBTQ+ Workplace Inclusion.
The CEI rates employers providing these crucial protections to over 20 million U.S. workers and an additional 18 million outside of the U.S. Companies rated in the CEI include Fortune magazine’s 500 largest publicly traded businesses, American Lawyer magazine’s top 200 revenue-grossing law firms (AmLaw 200), and hundreds of publicly and privately held mid- to large-sized businesses.
The CEI rates companies on detailed criteria falling under four central pillars:
- Non-discrimination policies across business entities;
- Equitable benefits for LGBTQ+ workers and their families;
- Supporting an inclusive culture; and,
- Corporate social responsibility.
The full report is available online at https://www.hrc.org/resources/corporate-equality-index.
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Giant Food, Shady Brook Farms Donate 11K Turkeys to Food Banks
Giant Food Representatives Donate Shady Brook Farms Holiday Turkeys to Capital Area Food Bank
Giant Food, the leading greater Washington, D.C. regional grocery chain, has announced its annual holiday turkey donations. In partnership with Shady Brook Farms, Giant Food will be donating 11,000 turkeys to its local Feeding America food banks partners as well as local organizations including Martha’s Table, Men Aiming Higher, THEARC: Building Bridges Across The River, Greater Washington Urban League and Greater Baltimore Urban League. Since 2011, Giant has donated 62,000 turkeys during Thanksgiving and this year, Shady Brook Farms is generously providing additional turkeys to make an even larger impact.
“At Giant, fighting food insecurity in the communities we serve is one of our top priorities,” said Dyani Hanrahan, vice president of marketing and community relations, Giant Food, and Maryland Food Bank board member. “We are proud to support over 20 community organizations this Thanksgiving in partnership with Shady Brook Farms to make sure our neighbors in need enjoy their holiday celebrations with family and loved ones.”
“At Shady Brook Farms, we take great responsibility in not only giving back during the critical holiday season, but also throughout the year to ensure families and local communities have access to delicious and nutritious meals,” said Hannah Kern, Shady Brook Farms marketing manager. “Partnering with a like-minded organization such as Giant Food to provide turkeys to those in need is incredibly meaningful and we’re beyond appreciative of their collaboration on impactful initiatives such as this.”
Additionally, Giant launched the annual “Lend a Hand for Hunger” campaign to benefit five area Feeding America food banks – Capital Area Food Bank, Maryland Food Bank, Food Bank of Delaware, Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank and Blue Ridge Area Food Bank – and other area nonprofits.
The campaign, running from Oct. 27 to Dec. 31 in all 164 Giant stores, offers customers an opportunity to support their neighbors by rounding up their change to the nearest dollar amount during checkout in-store or selecting a donation of $1, $3 or $5 during checkout in-store or online. Last year, through the generous support of associates and customers, over $1 million was raised to fight food insecurity.
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Giant Food Collects $550K to Address Food Insecurity Among Children
Administrators and social workers from the Falls Church, Va., school district are presented with a donation to address food insecurity.
Giant Food, the leading Washington D.C. regional grocery chain, collected $550,520 to help address food insecurity among children within its local communities. From June 16 through Aug, 7, Giant held its new customer giving campaign, “Nourishing Our Youth.” Giant customers were given the option to round up their grocery purchase to the nearest dollar to donate to their local public schools’ food programs.
All of the proceeds raised were donated to local school districts so they may use the funds to best serve their community and support meal programs such as covering outstanding student meal debt, expanding food distribution programs and building on-campus food pantries.
“We all know that children need nutritious meals to grow, learn and thrive. But too many children across our region struggle to receive a decent meal at lunch when attending school,” said Felis Andrade, director of external communications & community relations. “Through Giant’s Nourishing Our Youth program, we can give much-needed funds to school districts within our region to support their meal programs. We are incredibly grateful to our outstanding customers for their philanthropic support and thrilled to be able to donate these funds to our local school districts.”
According to Feeding America, over nine million children, or 1 in 8, faced hunger in 2022. Research has also consistently demonstrated that good nutrition and the ability to learn are intrinsically connected. School food programs are critical to ensuring many children receive regular meals and Giant is committed to continuing to support food insecurity efforts for children throughout its region.
“The generous Nourishing Our Youth Program allowed the Falls Church Education Foundation to provide Giant gift cards for food and school supplies for hundreds of students in need in the Falls Church City Public Schools,” said Debbie Hiscott, executive director. “This critical support provided meals to ensure our families could send their children to school well fed and ready to learn. Public education prepares all students to enter the workforce, and we are grateful for the support of the Nourish Our Youth donors.”
Funds are currently being distributed to schools throughout October. For more information about the program, email NourishingOurYouth@cranecommunications.com.
Giant Food annually donates over 4.5 million pounds of food and over $1 million in cash contributions to its five Feeding America food bank partners in an effort to eliminate hunger within its region. Giant offers an extensive account of its efforts throughout 2022 across areas of charitable giving, education, partnerships, innovation and development to be a Better Neighbor, which means being a Better Place to Shop and Better Place to Work within the greater DMV region, in its Better Neighbor Report. To view Giant’s Better Neighbor Report, visit https://giantfood.com/pages/better-neighbor-report.
For more information about Giant Food and all of its community giving programs, visit giantfood.com/community.
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