By Meredith Gremel
SpartanNash Foundation

The SpartanNash Foundation invites store guests to join it in supporting military heroes and their families during its companywide fundraising effort, taking place June 26-July 7. All funds raised during the SpartanNash Foundation fundraising scan campaign will be evenly split between Team Red, White & Blue, Operation Homefront and Honor and Remember. 

SpartanNash Foundation grants will be used to connect servicemembers, veterans and their families to their local communities through physical and social activity, provide critical financial assistance and family support services and honor those who lost their lives defending our freedoms. 

During the 12-day scan, store guests who visit any participating SpartanNash-owned retail store or fuel center in eight states will have the opportunity to donate $1, $5 or $10 at any checkout lane, or round their total up to the nearest dollar to support the trio of patriotic partners. More than 135 stores are participating in the Foundation scan, primarily under the banners of Family Fare, D&W Fresh Market, VG’s Grocery, Dan’s Supermarket and Family Fresh Market.

“Each year, SpartanNash contributes thousands of dollars, products and volunteer hours to military and veterans organizations and events – as well as hiring veterans and their family members as a Military Friendly® and veteran-friendly employer – and we are proud to team up with Team RWB, Operation Homefront and Honor and Remember in this unique and powerful way,” said Meredith Gremel, vice president of corporate affairs and communications and the executive director of the SpartanNash Foundation. “What better time to join with our store guests to support our military heroes than leading up to the Fourth of July, when we celebrate the freedoms they protect.”

Since 2016, the SpartanNash Foundation has raised and granted nearly $800,000 for its patriotic partners through its fundraising scan campaigns, benefitting veterans service organizations including Give an Hour, Fisher House Foundation, Blue Star Mothers of America, Inc., Disabled Veterans National Foundation and in 2019, Team RWB, Operation Homefront and Honor and Remember.

Team RWB

Nearly 3.5 million post-9/11 veterans live in communities nationwide today, and 250,000 veterans will leave active duty this year to join them. They often face isolation, lack of physical fitness, lack of purpose in a world that doesn’t understand the military.

Founded in 2010, Team RWB’s mission is to enrich the lives of America’s veterans by connecting them to their community through physical and social activity. Utilizing a nationwide network of chapters, Team RWB hosts and participates in events designed to bring veterans together and engage in the communities where they live and work. 

Team RWB is the bridge connecting communities – where Veterans and civilians work together and gain common understanding. Team RWB takes the best of military service – the camaraderie, the physical challenges – and creates a new family of Eagles connected through physical activity. 

“Today, Team RWB is approaching a million engagements with veterans, and we could not have touched so many lives without the help of charitable partners like SpartanNash Foundation,” said John Pinter, Team RWB’s Executive Director. “We are humbled that SpartanNash has chosen Team RWB as a partner for the scan campaign and excited by the opportunity to support more veterans in their post-service journeys.”

Team RWB offers resources to ensure veterans have an effective transition back into their communities and ways to engage locally.

For more information, visit TeamRWB.org.

Operation Homefront

Operation Homefront’s mission is to build strong, stable, and secure military families so they can thrive — not simply struggle to get by — in the communities they have worked so hard to protect.

For 17 years, Operation Homefront has provided critical financial assistance, transitional and permanent housing and family support services to prevent short-term needs from turning into chronic, long-term struggles. Recognized for superior performance by leading independent charity oversight groups, 92 percent of Operation Homefront expenditures go directly to programs that support tens of thousands of military families each year.

“We are absolutely thrilled to partner with SpartanNash and the SpartanNash Foundation for a second year, as we work together to give America’s military families the opportunity to thrive in the communities they have worked so hard to protect,” said Brig. Gen. (ret.) John I. Pray, Jr., President and CEO, Operation Homefront. “Through their companywide retail scan campaign, the extended SpartanNash family brings our vital mission to life and allows us to make a meaningful difference in the lives of this very special and deserving group of our fellow citizens.”

In 2018, SpartanNash Foundation funds supported Operation Homefront’s Critical Financial Assistance (CFA) program. CFA support includes, but is not limited to, direct assistance with rent and mortgage payments, utility bills, car repairs, home repairs and groceries. Thanks to the generous support of partners such as the SpartanNash Foundation, Operation Homefront has fulfilled more than 41,000 requests for assistance, providing over $25 million in grants since the CFA program began in 2011.

For more information, visit OperationHomefront.org.

Honor and Remember, Inc.

The mission of Honor and Remember is to publicly and perpetually recognize the ultimate sacrifice of America’s military fallen heroes and their families. The organization pays tribute to all military lives lost, not only while serving on active duty but also as a result of serving. 

The primary vehicle for perpetual recognition is a specific and dedicated symbol of remembrance created by this organization: The Honor and Remember Flag, which is intended to fly continuously as a tangible and visible reminder to all Americans of the lives lost in defense of our national freedoms.

The flag was established as a public symbol of appreciation honoring all military lives lost while serving since our nation’s inception. Personalized flags are regularly presented to individual families of fallen service members. Each personalized flag contains the name, theater of operation and date of death of the individual. The flags are presented at both private and public occasions.

SpartanNash is a national partner and strong supporter of Honor and Remember, underwriting personal flag presentations to families of the fallen and flying the Honor and Remember flag at all company facilities. The flag artwork is also displayed on SpartanNash’s fleet of tractor trailers, which travel more than 65 million miles per year.

“We are so very humbled to once again be partnering with the SpartanNash Foundation and its customers to give back to the families of the brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our nation,” said George Lutz, who founded Honor and Remember after losing his son in Iraq in 2005. “The generosity of SpartanNash customers allows us to continue to individually recognize Gold Star families and equally important to see the Honor and Remember flag flying below the American flag as our national expression of appreciation, so the public never forgets our fallen heroes.”

Through its partnership with the SpartanNash Foundation, Honor and Remember honored more than 250 families who have lost a loved one through military service with personalized Honor and Remember flags in 2018. SpartanNash was also a presenting sponsor of Honor and Remember’s Run for the Fallen – a five-month, 6,000-mile journey to pay tribute to fallen servicemembers.

For more information, go to HonorandRemember.org.

One hundred percent of donations raised during the 2019 patriotic fundraising scan campaign will go directly to Team RWB, Operation Homefront and Honor and Remember as they support military heroes, veterans and their families by connecting them to their local communities through physical and social activity, providing critical financial assistance and family support services and honoring those who lost their lives defending our freedoms. SpartanNash underwrites the cost of the awareness-building and fundraising campaign as well as contributes funding and encourages associates to volunteer with the Foundation’s grant recipients.

“As a leading distributor of grocery products to U.S. military commissaries throughout the world, SpartanNash sees firsthand the sacrifices our servicemen and women make to protect our freedoms every day,” Gremel said. “SpartanNash and the SpartanNash Foundation are deeply committed to supporting our military heroes in the communities we serve, and through our new partnership with Team RWB and our ongoing support of Operation Homefront and Honor and Remember, we can work with our store guests to raise awareness and funds for those who served and sacrificed.”

The retail scan campaign supporting Operation Homefront and Honor and Remember is the third of four fundraising campaigns the SpartanNash Foundation will conduct in 2018. To date, the SpartanNash Foundation has raised $434,700 on behalf of local Habitat for Humanity and Special Olympics partners in eight states.

To learn more about the SpartanNash Foundation and its impact, visit spartannash.com/foundation.