Food Lion Feeds helped provide more than 1.7 million meals to those in need through its Score to Give More initiative during the 2025-26 college basketball season.
The program tied free throw production from 54 participating men’s and women’s basketball teams to meal donations for campus food pantries and local Feeding America partner food banks.
For every free throw made by a participating team, Food Lion Feeds provided 100 meals, up to 30,000 meals per team.
“Score to Give More brings together our passion for college athletics and our commitment to helping provide meals,” said Kevin Durkee, manager of Food Lion Feeds. “We’re proud to partner with student-athletes and universities that are making a meaningful difference where they live, learn and play.”
The regular season accounted for the bulk of the impact, with student-athletes helping provide more than 1.6 million meals. Postseason tournaments added to the total. All 12 Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association colleges competed in the 2026 Food Lion CIAA Basketball Tournament in Baltimore, collectively generating nearly 60,000 meals. At the 2026 ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament in Duluth, Georgia, 15 teams produced free throws totaling more than 28,000 meals. In Charlotte, 15 teams at the 2026 ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament contributed more than 38,000 meals.
Since launching in 2019, the Score to Give More initiative has helped provide more than 8.2 million meals, supporting Food Lion Feeds’ commitment to provide three billion meals by 2032.
The basketball partnership is one of several hunger-relief initiatives Food Lion runs annually. The grocer’s recent Orange Bag campaign, held Feb. 25 through March 17, helped provide more than 13 million meals through customer purchases of specially marked navel orange bags and in-store and online donations.
[RELATED: Food Lion Orange Bag Campaign Provides More Than 13M Meals In 2026]
Food Lion established Food Lion Feeds in 2014 as its hunger-relief platform, focused on ending food insecurity across its 10-state footprint. Since then, the platform has helped provide more than 1.5 billion meals. In 2025 alone, Food Lion Feeds provided the equivalent of 238 million meals, including more than 54 million through its pioneering food rescue program.