Walmart Philadelphia

Helping Women Achieve a Common Dream

Walmart’s Global Women’s Economic Empowerment Initiative is working to create opportunity and empower women and girls in markets around the world. By investing in training, sourcing products from women, and increasing the gender diversity of our partners, we are supporting women (and mothers!) who are lifting themselves up and laying the groundwork for a stronger tomorrow.

Read more at the Huffington Post

ISU Economists Study Iowa Communities 15 Years Before And After Wal-Mart

Control communities in the study — those without Wal-Mart stores — didn’t match the retail sales growth of the Wal-Mart host towns, but their sales also largely stabilized during the same 15-year period. The study will be published in a future issue of Economic Development Quarterly.

Kein JCC To Dedicate New Greehouse Supported By Grant

KLEIN JCC TO DEDICATE NEW GREENHOUSE SUPPORTED BY GRANT FROM THE WALMART FOUNDATION & MEALS ON WHEELS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA

Officers and senior members of the Klein JCC in Northeast Philadelphia joined representatives of Walmart, Meals On Wheels Association of America and local government officials in a special ribbon cutting ceremony to dedicate a new greenhouse that will help feed more homebound seniors in the JCC’s Home Delivered Meals program. The greenhouse, adjacent shed and outdoor freezer are being constructed from a $50,000 “Building For The Future Grant” from The Walmart Foundation and Meals on Wheels Association of America (MOWAA).

The Home Delivered Meals program currently prepares and delivers 45,000 meals annually to homebound seniors residing in Philadelphia, Bucks and Montgomery Counties who cannot cook for themselves.  It also featuresCook ForA Friend which is largely dependent on synagogues and other charitable groups who cook meals which are then packaged by volunteers and frozen for delivery.

According to Sue Aistrop, hunger relief volunteer manager for the Klein JCC, “The new greenhouse will grow its own fresh produce to share with the senior population and for use in meals for homebound seniors. It will additionally allow the Klein JCC to recruit and engage volunteers to help provide 5,000 more nutritious meals annually to some 500 area homebound seniors. Thanks to the Walmart Foundation-MOWAA grant, we were provided the resources to expand services at a time when demand is growing significantly.”

According to research sponsored by the MOWAA, more than six million seniors in America face the threat of hunger. The Walmart Foundation-MOWAA “Building For The Future Grant Program” is intended to

help combat hunger in America. Last year, the Walmart Foundation announced a $5 million donation to MOWAA as part of a $2 billion commitment to support hunger relief efforts through 2015. It is the largest donation ever made to MOWAA by a corporate partner.

“We know that seniors are among the hardest hit by hunger in the country,” said Walmart Market Manager Todd Wilson. “Through our relationship with Klein JCC we hope to bring additional attention to senior hunger and help ensure our parents, grandparents and friends who have added so much to our lives, have access to healthy and nutritious food in the Philadelphia-area.”

Now celebrating its 36^th anniversary year, the non-profit Klein JCC provides social, educational and cultural programs, as well as vital social services for people living in Northeast Philadelphia and its surrounding communities. It is the largest senior center in the Philadelphia area and provides support to more than 4,500 seniors annually through a diverse array of programs. It offers outstanding services and innovative programs for area residents who range in age from early childhood through adult and senior years.  The Klein JCC additionally delivers vital services and programs employing cutting edge practices and strategies. More than 30,000 children, adults and senior citizens are served annually in a warm and friendly comprehensive community center environment delivering a broad spectrum of high quality services to area communities that otherwise would not be served. The Klein JCC is located at 10100 Jamison Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116 and may be reached at 215-698-7300 or on the web at www.kleinjcc.org.

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About Philanthropy at Walmart

Walmart and the Walmart Foundation are proud to support initiatives that are helping people live better around the globe. In May 2010, Walmart and its Foundation made a historic pledge of $2 billion through 2015 to fight hunger in the U.S. The Walmart Foundation also supports education, workforce development, environmental sustainability, and health and wellness initiatives. To learn more, visit www.walmartfoundation.org.

Walmart Announces Winners of Populara “Get on the Shelf” Contest

Get on the Shelf Winners

Walmart Announces Winners of Popular “Get on the Shelf” Contest

HumanKind Water is Grand Winner; PlateTopper and SnapIt Eyeglass Repair Kit Also Win

SAN BRUNO, Calif. – May 3, 2012 – Walmart (NYSE: WMT) today announced the final winners of its popular Get on the Shelf contest, HumanKind Water, PlateTopper and SnapIt Eyeglass Repair Kit. More than 4,000 inventors, entrepreneurs and small businesses from across the country entered the contest with video submissions for products ranging from household wares and children’s toys to organic food and green items. Over one million votes were cast by the public to vie for the opportunity to be carried at Walmart.com and in Walmart U.S. stores.

HumanKind Water, a bottled water company that gives 100 percent of its net profits towards clean drinking water for underdeveloped communities worldwide, was the Grand Prize winner. PlateTopper, a kitchen product that transforms dinner plates into airtight food storage containers, came in second. SnapIt Eyeglass Repair Kit, a screw kit to fix glasses in 30 seconds, was the third winner. All three products will be available on Walmart.com and HumanKind Water will also be on physical shelves in select Walmart U.S. stores soon.

“Get on the Shelf has brought out the best in American ingenuity and creativity with products that are clever, fun and useful,” said Joel Anderson, president and CEO of Walmart.com. “The three winners demonstrated a deep passion, incredible imagination, and sheer persistence in their journey. We congratulate them and are proud to carry their products at Walmart.”

HumanKind Water
HumanKind is on a mission to deliver clean filtered water to people in the world who need it the most. HumanKind, based in Philadelphia, reports that more than one billion people – one in seven across the globe– lack access to clean drinking water and half of all hospital beds in the world are filled with people dying from lack of clean water or sanitation. With the digging of wells, installation of filtration and chlorination systems and possible harvesting of rain, HumanKind believes the problem can be eradicated. For them, if every American purchased $10 worth of HumanKind Water a year – less than what most spend on Halloween candy – it could nearly eradicate one of the world’s largest and most tragic physical problems. HumanKind Water will be available soon on Walmart.com. In the meantime customers can sign up for an email alert to notify them when the product is available.

PlateTopper
PlateTopper, based in San Francisco, is the brainchild of Michael Tseng who first developed a prototype for the product in 2005 when he was studying at Princeton University. Michael then went on to complete his graduate studies in biomedical engineering and medicine while working on PlateTopper part-time. In the last year, Michael has spent all of his time perfecting PlateTopper to enable people to quickly and easily store food right on the dinner plate. The product is now available for sale at Walmart.com for $19.77.

SnapIt Eyeglass Repair Kit
SnapIt Eyeglass Repair Kit, out of East Wenatchee, Washington, is a patented screw kit that fixes sunglasses or eyeglasses in 30 seconds. Inventor Nancy Tedeschi created SnapIt when her mother used a dangling earring to hold her broken glasses together. After starting on a path to create eyeglass charms, Nancy wanted an easier way to screw together eyeglasses and reinvented the tiny screws that are hard to grasp. SnapIt’s design employs a feeder tab that guides the screws in place, and can easily be snapped off once the glasses are secured. SnapIt will be available soon on Walmart.com and customers can sign up for an email alert to notify them of the product’s availability.

Throughout the contest, the winning inventors went the distance to market their participation. Humankind Water transformed its homepage into a “war room” completely dedicated to getting votes. PlateTopper deployed humorous videos and social marketing tactics to raise visibility, including a YouTube video, which has been viewed more than two million times. Nancy of SnapIt even went to the NBC Today Show’s plaza in New York where her assistant dressed as a giant screw and was seen on national television with a sign asking for votes.

Get on the Shelf, a program from @WalmartLabs, launched in January of this year where contestants sent in videos of their latest inventions to be voted on by the public. In the first 24 hours of the contest voting, which began March 7, nearly 95 percent of the participants received a vote via Facebook or text. The top five product categories were home improvement, personalized products, health/wellness/fitness, fashion apparel/home and outdoor home. For more information, visit http://getontheshelf.com.

About Walmart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) serves customers and members more than 200 million times per week at over 9,700 retail units under 69 different banners in 28 countries. With fiscal year 2011 sales of $419 billion, Walmart employs 2.1 million associates worldwide. Walmart continues to be a leader in sustainability, corporate philanthropy and employment opportunity. Additional information about Walmart can be found by visiting http://walmartstores.com and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/walmart. Online merchandise sales are available at http://www.walmart.com and http://www.samsclub.com. @WalmartLabs, based in the heart of Silicon Valley, is Walmart’s business unit that creates platforms and products around social and mobile commerce. For more information, visit www.walmartlabs.com.

HumanKind

Snap It

PlateTopper

Infographic

Ohio Community Secures $1 Million in Grants for Hunger Relief through Walmart’s “Fighting Hunger Together” Facebook Campaign

Ohio Community Secures $1 Million in Grants for Hunger Relief through Walmart’s “Fighting Hunger Together” Facebook Campaign 20 Runner-up Communities to Receive $50,000 Each to Fight Hunger Locally

BENTONVILLE, Ark., May 1, 2012 – With more than 98,000 votes, Youngstown-Warren, Ohio, took the top spot in Walmart’s “Fighting Hunger Together” Facebook campaign securing $1 million in grants from Walmart to help fight hunger. Since April 9, more than 396,000 votes were cast for the 200 communities across the United States hardest hit by unemployment. The 20 communities with the next highest votes will each receive $50,000 in grants to fight hunger. The runners-up are:

• Johnson City, Tenn.
• Madera-Chowchilla, Calif.
• Fresno, Calif.
• Bakersfield-Delano, Calif.
• El Paso, Texas
• Hanford-Corcoran, Calif.
• St. George, Utah
• Toledo, Ohio
• Danville, Va.
• Salem, Ore.
• Charlotte, N.C.
• Visalia-Porterville, Calif.
• Kokomo, Ind.
• Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla.
• Parkersburg-Vienna, W. Va.
• Modesto, Calif.
• Morristown, Tenn.
• Louisville, Ky.
• Yuma, Ariz.
• The Inland Empire, Calif.

The 200 communities included in Walmart’s “Fighting Hunger Together” Facebook campaign were chosen based on a list from the U.S. Department of Labor that identified the communities across the country with the highest rates of unemployment. Walmart’s campaign comes at a critical time, as spring traditionally brings a decrease in donations to food banks, leaving them unable to meet the needs of those who are facing food insecurity.

“We want to thank everyone who contributed to the fight against hunger this month, particularly the thousands who voted and shared the campaign with their friends on Facebook,” said Sylvia Mathews Burwell, president of the Walmart Foundation. “We hope the increased awareness will positively impact food banks and hunger nonprofits across the nation as they continue to help the one in six Americans who at some point this year will be uncertain where their next meal will come from.”

Through its Facebook page, Walmart will notify fans on the local organizations in the 21 communities that will receive hunger relief funding through this initiative. Walmart expects to announce all organizations receiving grants on May 15.

During April, Walmart customers were also able to fight hunger by visiting one of its 3,854 Walmart stores and Neighborhood Markets nationwide to purchase products from supplier partners, four of the nation’s largest food companies — General Mills, ConAgra Foods, Kraft Foods and Kellogg Company. During April and as part of Walmart’s continuing food donations, more than 42 million meals will be donated to Feeding America food banks and Action for Healthy Kids.

As the nation’s largest grocer, Walmart is uniquely positioned to help fight hunger in America. Since launching its $2 billion commitment to fight hunger, the company has contributed more than 594 million pounds of food and $122 million in grants to hunger relief programs and is also lending its expertise to help food banks operate more efficiently.

About Philanthropy at Walmart
Walmart and the Walmart Foundation are proud to support initiatives that are helping people live better around the globe. In May 2010, Walmart and its Foundation made a historic pledge of $2 billion through 2015 to fight hunger in the U.S. The Walmart Foundation also supports education, workforce development, environmental sustainability, and health and wellness initiatives. To learn more, visit www.walmartfoundation.org.

Walmart Mom’s are Key in 2012 Election

Valley Wins $1 Million WalMart Contest

It started out as a simple request: Vote for the Youngstown/Warren area in WalMart’s national “Fighting Hunger Together” Campaign. More than 98,000 votes later, the Mahoning Valley remained in the No. 1 spot in WalMart’s “Fighting Hunger Together” Campaign around 11:40 p.m. Monday, with just 20 minutes of voting left. “It’s an incredible display of tenacity by the people of the Valley in order to help hungry people,” said Michael Iberis, executive director of the Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley. Up for grabs is $1 million, which is money that can go a long way to help the food bank and Catholic Charities feed the Mahoning Valley. “We’re so happy that everyone has rallied to come together to vote for this area,” said Nancy Voitus, executive director of Catholic Charities.

Watch full video at WKBN-TV

Annette John-Hall: His Mother Would Be Proud Of His Acts

          
It was Joyce Parker’s final wish.

As the original Miss Tootsie – whose premier soul-food restaurant at 13th and South bore her nickname – lay dying of pancreatic cancer last year, she made her son, Keven, promise to “get the work done.”

Keven understood exactly what she meant.

Giving back was always in Joyce Parker’s DNA. Even before there was a Miss Tootsie’s – which Keven has since expanded and transformed from a neighborhood spot into the luxe Miss Tootsie’s Restaurant Bar Lounge – Joyce would find a way to help those in need. She’d buy Easter clothes for a neighbor’s children, pay for a friend’s screen door, quietly help a pal out with rent. This her son realized as he listened to folks testify at his mother’s funeral in July, when 2,000 turned out to pay their respects.

It was affirmation that Parker’s mission extended beyond running the Keven Parker Co., a successful restaurant, catering, and lifestyle enterprise that trains employees and awards college scholarships.

“I was doing a lot of different things,” he says, “but I needed to spread more love.”

And that’s when it came to him. The idea for the Spread the Love Foundation.

On the fourth Monday of every month, Parker and members of his restaurant hop aboard the “Spread the Love” bus to seek out folks on whom to bestow random acts of kindness, as Miss Joyce did. Usually, they focus on seniors, but anyone stands to be a blessed beneficiary. Since January, Parker and company have paid electric bills, picked up the costs of car repairs, purchased the wardrobes of women transitioning from welfare to work. Once he even treated a group of city employees standing in line at a lunch truck to a free meal.

Parker is always there, spreading the love firsthand. And for now, most of his acts of kindness are coming out of his pocket.

“I could have this be just a charitable organization, but I want to know where the money is going,” explains Parker, who’s in his 40s. “I want it to penetrate the right communities and the right people.”

On a recent afternoon, Parker and his team hopped out of his vehicle at the Wal-Mart parking lot in South Philly as if they were on a superhero mission. Shoppers didn’t know it, but they were about to get Tasered with a megadose of love.

Read more at Philly.com

Locals Warming Up to Northcross Walmart

Almost everyone was surprised by the heated opposition to the proposed Walmart Superstore at Northcross mall five years ago.

It took protests and lawsuits, but in the end, Walmart built a much smaller store than planned.

Back then, Jason Meeker was spokesman for the neighborhood group, Responsible Growth for Northcross, or RG4N.

“We had said we wanted a grocery center there,” he said. “And that’s what it is, it’s Walmart neighborhood market.”

After two years in the once-troubled area, the store is now surrounded by other new businesses and shoppers are plentiful.

“And they say it was going to ruin all the businesses and all this stuff. Look at all the businesses, what are you talking about? This was nothing,” Walmart shopper Estrella Rummans said. “And the people that complain about it were the first ones that came.”

Read more at Austin YNN