CHICAGO, Sept. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR), which operates 14 Food 4 Less stores in the greater Chicago area, has announced a new, national effort aimed at ending hunger in the communities Kroger calls home and eliminating waste across the company by 2025.

"No family in a community we serve should ever go hungry, and no food in a store we operate should ever go to waste," said Rodney McMullen, Kroger's chairman and CEO.

Across the United States, 42 million Americans struggle with hunger. At the same time, an estimated 72 billion pounds of food ends up in a landfill every year.

"More than 40 percent of the food produced in the U.S. each year goes unconsumed, while one in eight people struggle with hunger. That just doesn't make sense," Mr. McMullen said. "As America's grocer and one of the largest retailers in the world, we are committing to doing something about it."

Kroger's visionary Zero Hunger | Zero Waste plan includes the bold commitments outlined below, in keeping with the company's Purpose to Feed the Human Spirit(TM).

Kroger is also crowdsourcing for solutions, asking communities, partners and other stakeholders to help provide ideas, feedback and best practices as the effort evolves. In addition, Kroger is working closely with both Feeding America and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), our longstanding partners, to develop transparent metrics to track our progress.

"We know that meals matter - families that share meals together have children who do better in every aspect of their lives. That's why we imagine a world without hunger and food waste," said Bryan Kaltenbach, president of Food 4 Less.

"We are inviting everyone who is passionate about feeding people and protecting the planet to join us in our mission to end hunger in our communities and eliminate waste across our company by 2025," added Mr. Kaltenbach.

"Hunger exists in every county and affects every demographic group in this country," said Diana Aviv, CEO of Feeding America(®). "If we are to succeed in creating a hunger-free America, it will take the combined efforts of a variety of groups - policymakers, nonprofits, individuals and corporations - working together with the 200 network member food banks. Kroger is stepping up to the challenge and we look forward to working with them on their Zero Hunger | Zero Waste plan."

"The production and consumption of food has the largest environmental footprint of any human activity. By wasting less food, we can reduce the environmental impact of food production while also conserving biodiversity and wildlife habitat," said Sheila Bonini, senior vice president, Private Sector Engagement, WWF. "Kroger's zero waste commitment sets a new standard for food waste reduction goals and will have a ripple effect across their supply chain and industry."

Zero Hunger | Zero Waste: A Plan to End Hunger In Kroger Communities
and Eliminate Waste In The Kroger Co.


    --  Establish a $10 million innovation fund within The Kroger Co. Foundation
        to address hunger, food waste and the paradoxical relationship between
        the two.
    --  Accelerate food donations to provide three billion meals by 2025 to feed
        people facing hunger in the places Kroger calls home, including the
        communities served by Food 4 Less stores in the greater Chicago area. In
        partnership with its customers, associates and other partners, Kroger
        has donated one billion meals via combined food and funds donations
        since 2013.
    --  Donate not just more food, more balanced meals via Kroger's
        industry-leading fresh food donations program. Kroger has been feeding
        people facing hunger since the company's inception in 1883, and as a
        founding partner of Feeding America, the nation's largest hunger relief
        organization, Kroger has longstanding partners with food banks across
        the country. Today, Kroger and Food 4 Less store associates are
        empowered to identify meat, produce, dairy and bakery items for donation
        that remain safe, fresh and nutritious. Last year, Kroger donated the
        equivalent of 46 million fresh meals to local food banks in addition to
        dry goods and shelf-stable groceries. Through the first half of this
        year, Food 4 Less stores in the Chicago area have donated more than
        300,000 pounds of fresh product to area food banks.
    --  Advocate for public policy solutions to address hunger and to shorten
        the line at food banks, lobbying for continued funding of federal hunger
        relief programs, and for public policies that help communities prevent
        and divert waste from landfills, including recycling, composting and
        sustainability programs that can be scaled for maximum impact.
    --  Achieve all Zero Waste 2020 goals outlined in the annual Kroger
        sustainability report.
    --  Eliminate food waste by 2025 through prevention, donation and diversion
        efforts in all stores and across Kroger. Develop transparent reporting
        on food loss and waste.
    --  Join forces with both new and longstanding partners to identify
        opportunities, leverage data, and determine where by working together
        Kroger can help the most.
    --  Transform communities and improve the health of millions of Americans by
        2025 by making balanced meals more readily available, sharing scalable
        food waste solutions with other retailers, restaurants and local
        governments, and working within Kroger's supply chain to reduce
        farm-to-fork food loss.

"Zero Hunger | Zero Waste is a vision for the America we want to help create with our associates, customers and stakeholders," Mr. McMullen said. "This is our moonshot.'"

"We recognize we have a lot of work to do," he added. "But we know when Kroger's more than 443,000 associates put their passion to work to make something happen, we can uplift our communities, the planet and each other."

Follow our journey and join the conversation at thekrogerco.com and #ZeroHungerZeroWaste.

At The Kroger Co., Ralphs and Food 4 Less, we are dedicated to our Purpose: to Feed The Human Spirit(TM).

About Food 4 Less
Headquartered in Los Angeles, Food 4 Less operates 130 price-impact, warehouse-format supermarkets under the banners Food 4 Less in Southern California, Illinois and Indiana, and Foods Co in Central and Northern California. Last year, Food 4 Less and Foods Co combined to contribute more than $4 million to support the communities served by its stores. Food 4 Less is a subsidiary of The Kroger Co., (NYSE:KR), one of the nation's largest grocery retailers, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. For more information about Food 4 Less, please visit our website at www.food4less.com.

View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/kroger-announces-zero-hunger--zero-waste-plan-300522469.html

SOURCE Food 4 Less