Food Lion has become the official grocer partner of the Carolina Ascent Football Club, with the organizations sharing details of their collaboration July 24.
This mark’s Food Lion’s first partnership with a women’s professional sports organization. Carolina Ascent is one of the eight inaugural franchises of the United Soccer League’s Super League.
Carolina Ascent and Food Lion aim to fight food insecurity across North and South Carolina and provide nutrition education for young athletes. As a result, the grocer will introduce multiple programs through its hunger relief platform, Food Lion Feeds.
“We are thrilled to have such an amazing partnership with Food Lion. Food Lion is a community service stalwart with a rich history of fighting hunger related issues in our region,” said COO Tim Schuldt of the Carolina Ascent Football Club.
“We look forward to driving more awareness to this challenge that many of our Carolina neighbors face, and more importantly, we look forward to rolling up our sleeves and working with Food Lion to make a difference.”
[RELATED: Food Lion Introduces New Store In Garner, NC]
Through Food Lion Feeds, Carolina Ascent players, coaches and staff will participate in two programs. Each season, players will accompany two families – identified by Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina – on shopping sprees at Food Lion stores.
Also in partnership with the food bank, the club will volunteer twice per season at the annual Backpack for Hunger event, which provides more than 200,000 backpacks filled with food for children across the 24 counties Second Harvest serves.
To support nutrition education, Food Lion and Carolina Ascent will launch a video series for distribution through various communication channels, including social media, Carolina Ascent’s website and in-stadium video boards.
The club will work with Food Lion to identify and deliver educational content focused on nutrition tips for youth-aged athletes, including Food Lion’s Guiding Stars program. Introduced in 2006, the effort features ratings on more than 6,000 products and shelf labels at Food Lion stores.
“At Food Lion, our neighbors count on us to nourish their families, and we are committed to doing everything we can to address food insecurity in our community,” said Food Lion President Meg Ham.
“Through partnerships like this one with Carolina Ascent, we are working to address some of the root causes of food insecurity. We believe no one should have to choose between dinner and rent or gas and groceries. In a time when families and their children experience hunger, we look forward to this partnership to increase access to nutritious food and nutritional education.”
As part of the arrangement, the Food Lion logo will be featured on the sleeve of the Carolina Ascent home jersey. And through the Score To Give More initiative, Food Lion Feeds will help provide 1,000 meals to Second Harvest for every goal the team scores this season.
Carolina Ascent opens its campaign at 7 p.m. Aug. 17, when it plays host to DC Power FC at American Legion Memorial Stadium.
