RICHMOND, Va. & DOVER, Del. -- GPM Investments LLC, which operates the Fas Mart and Shore Stop convenience store chains, has announced that it has donated $10,000 to the Central Virginia Food Bank and $10,000 to the Food Bank of Delaware through BP's Fueling Communities grant program.
The donations will be used to support the BackPack Program, providing at-need children with free meals they can take home when they don't have access to regular, reliable meals at school.
Through the program, children receive a backpack filled with nutritious, child-friendly, nonperishable meals on weekends, school breaks and in the summer.
Last year, more than 2,000 children in 13 low-income communities in Central Virginia received nearly 400,000 meals, and the Food Bank of Delaware donated more than 55,000 backpacks; those numbers are expected to grow this year.
"We are grateful for the opportunity to work with BP and its Fueling Communities grant program to support such great charitable organizations that help at-need children in our community," said Rick Klyczek, vice president of marketing at Fas Mart and Shore Stop.
He added, "Connecting with our local communities is a core strategy of our brand and we look forward to continuing to find ways to support similar charitable organizations in the future."
BP Fueling Communities provides grants to local charities that are nominated by local BP business owners to support the communities in which they do business. Fueling Communities gives back to local organizations that support health, education, youth, food and housing in order to spread charity and goodwill wherever it is needed most.
The Central Virginia Food Bank is part of the nonprofit organization FeedMore, working to efficiently and effectively fight hunger in the region's most vulnerable populations, particularly children, families and seniors.
The Food Bank of Delaware is a nonprofit organization that provides nutritious foods to Delawareans in need and facilitates long-term solutions to the problems of hunger and poverty through community education and advocacy.
Fas Mart and Shore Stop are members of the GPM family of convenience stores. GPM is based in Richmond, Va., and operates 213 convenience stores and supplies more than 115 independent dealers in Virginia, Maryland, Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Tennessee.
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