Lennys Grill & Subs Raises $35,000 To Put an End to Childhood Hunger

We see pictures and hear stories about children suffering from food insecurity all the time. But what many people may not realize is that there may be kids struggling with hunger living right next door to them.

According to Feeding America, 42.2 million people in the United States live in food-insecure households. This means about 42.2 million people don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Of this 42.2 million, 13.1 million are children.

While these statistics are tough to stomach, hundreds of companies, charities and philanthropists are doing their part to help. Lennys Grill & Subs is one of those companies.

Lennys began their fight against childhood hunger in 2015 when they partnered with No Kid Hungry, a campaign that was started in 1984 by the organization Share Our Strength.

“Lennys continues to operate with the belief that everybody deserves great food,” said Kevin Martin, President and CEO of Lennys. “Not everyone has access to food, let-alone good, nutritious food. We want to change that.”

Since Share Our Strength started, it has raised more than $525 million through corporate partnerships, like the one with Lennys. Every year, thousands of restaurants across the country come together to raise money and awareness for No Kid Hungry, spurring millions of customers to donate to the charity at the point of sale in stores, online and social media sites, or by participating in local fundraising and cause marketing events.

As a part of teaming up with No Kid Hungry, Lennys pledged to provide food-insecure children with as many as 300,000 meals to keep them fed. To do this, the brand asked patrons to donate $1 each time they visited. Diners were then recognized for their kind donation with a $2-off coupon for any club sandwich on their next visit.

“We recognized that kids who go hungry aren’t going to perform as well in school, and they’re not going to succeed because they can’t stay focused,” Martin said. “Partnering with No Kid Hungry means we can be an active presence within our communities to effectively initiate a change so they can better focus on their future success.”

When Lennys first began their partnership in 2015, it set an introductory goal of raising $25,000. They effectively met and passed that goal in their first year of the campaign, receiving overwhelming support from their customers throughout the fundraising effort.

“Going into the first fundraising campaign, we were hoping that customers would recognize the need to help struggling families and kids,” Martin said. “We were very happy to see the response from our customers and their outstanding willingness to contribute to the cause.”

For their second fundraiser, which just concluded on October 2nd, Lennys upped their goal to $30,000.

“The team members at Share Our Strength indicated that goal could provide as many as 300,000 meals to hungry kids. That really inspired our team,” said Martin.

Not only did Lennys meet the goal of $30,000, they surpassed it with ease, generating a total of $35,000 over the month-long campaign.

“We are incredibly proud of the efforts of our owners and their work to make this second campaign a very, very successful one,” Martin said.

While hunger is still a problem in the United States, there are many efforts to combat the problem. Lennys is off to a strong start aiding the cause, and after the first two efforts, Martin is confident that the campaign can only get stronger as they continue to fight a meaningful battle to ensure a brighter future for younger generations.