MONROE, La., June 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- CenturyLink,
Inc. (NYSE: CTL) employees and local communities contributed more
than $907,000 in the 2017 CenturyLink
Backpack Buddies Food Drive, which took place June 5-16. The drive supported over 140 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 a $1
million match 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 five meals for each dollar
they receive. Therefore, the CenturyLink Backpack Buddies Food
Drive will help provide over nine million meals throughout its
communities.
Since its inception in 2009, donations from the CenturyLink
Backpack Buddies Food Drive have provided more than 56 million
meals across the country. 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 during 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, their network provides emergency food assistance to
an estimated 42.2 million people each year, including 13 million
children and five million seniors.
About CenturyLink
CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) is a global communications and IT
services company focused on connecting its customers to the power
of the digital world. CenturyLink offers network and data systems
management, big data analytics, managed security services, hosting,
cloud, and IT consulting services. The company provides broadband,
voice, video, advanced data and managed network services over a
robust 265,000-route-mile U.S. fiber network and a
360,000-route-mile international transport network. Visit
CenturyLink for more information.
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SOURCE CenturyLink