Publix has been seeing booming business lately, with more than $1 billion for a sales increase during the coronavirus. Their stores have seen a dramatic increase in transactions and the company says that this growth is being fueled by many other businesses being closed at this time.
As well, there are some restrictions that don't allow you to go many places other than work or the grocery store, depending on where you are, though a number of areas are lifting their restrictions now.
Buying Food From Farmers To Donate
To help local food banks deal with the uptick that they have seen in demand, and to also help local food producers too, Publix has been buying up local products from farmers and donating those excess items to people in need.
Publix has been busy buying things like milk and a variety of produce items so that it can turn around and donate that much needed food to local food banks that might be struggling right now.
Those donations will go to Feeding America Food banks and they are hoping it helps the community members using those food banks, as well as the farmers that would have otherwise been forced to discard those items.
150,000 pounds of produce
They are looking at donating more than 150k lbs of produce and 43k gallons of milk within just the first week of doing this.
"As a food retailer, we have the unique opportunity to bridge the gap between the needs of families and farmers [during this time]," - " Publix CEO T. Jones
Right now, they will be doing this in the Florida region and helping farmers and dairy operations in those communities etc. It might prompt other stores to start looking at doing the same.
Another food giant, Tyson, is also making significant donations.
Already, there are plans for one food bank in the Midwest to receive a semi load of chickens delivered and this is going to be a valuable source of protein for those utilizing food banks at this time. In other regions like Georiga and Florida, Tyson will also be making donations for those areas as well.