MONROE, La., July 13, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- CenturyLink, Inc.
(NYSE: CTL) employees and local communities raised approximately
$665,000 in the 2016 CenturyLink
Backpack Buddies Food Drive, which took place June 6-17. The drive supported 144 food banks in
communities the company serves across the
United States.
To further support the annual food drive, the CenturyLink Clarke
M. Williams Foundation contributed $1
million to local food bank beneficiaries based on the amount
of donations they received through the online donation site. Food
banks that offer backpack programs were asked to direct 50 percent
of their gifts from the CenturyLink Clarke M. Williams Foundation
to those programs.
Food Banks can provide an average of six meals for each dollar
they receive. Therefore, the CenturyLink Backpack Buddies Food
Drive will help provide almost 10 million meals throughout its
communities.
CenturyLink started its annual Backpack Buddies Food Drive in
2009. The goals of the yearly drive are to generate donations for
local food banks and help raise awareness of the need for backpack
programs. Backpack programs are crucial to children who rely on
school breakfasts and lunches to meet their nutritional needs each
day. These programs provide nutritional, shelf-stable meals for
at-risk students over weekends and school breaks.
"We're happy to have partnered with so many local agencies in
the communities CenturyLink serves to support their efforts to
fight hunger," said CenturyLink's Manager of Community Relations
Kristy LaCroix. "We hope that our food drive has helped raise
awareness of the hunger relief needs across our markets, as well as
across the nation."
According to Feeding America, the nation's largest hunger relief
organization, the Feeding America network provides emergency food
assistance to an estimated 46.5 million people annually, including
12 million children and seven million seniors.
About CenturyLink
CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) is a global
communications, hosting, cloud and IT services company enabling
millions of customers to transform their businesses and their lives
through innovative technology solutions. CenturyLink offers network
and data systems management, Big Data analytics and IT consulting,
and operates more than 55 data centers in North America, Europe and Asia. The company provides broadband, voice,
video, data and managed services over a robust 250,000-route-mile
U.S. fiber network and a 300,000-route-mile international transport
network. Visit CenturyLink for more information.
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SOURCE CenturyLink, Inc.