The Eastern Illinois Foodbank, which serves Champaign County, is currently in the running to win a $45,000 grant from Wal-Mart and its partners.

“We know hunger is a big issue and as the nation’s largest grocer, we have a responsibility to help change this reality,” said Scott Pope, senior manager of National Media Relations for Wal-Mart, in an email.

Wal-Mart is holding its third Fighting Hunger Together competition for nonprofit organizations through Facebook. Users can visit the application, My Local Walmart, on Facebook and vote for any organization of their choosing. 

“Fighting Hunger Together brings together local and national non-profits, community leaders, customers, Wal-Mart associates and some of the most recognizable food companies in America in a joint effort to battle hunger,” Pope said. 

EIF serves a total of 14 counties with the mission to alleviate hunger in Eastern Illinois, said Julie Melton, director of marketing and development at EIF. The food bank distributes to food pantries and soup kitchens in those counties, which then serve the public.

One program the food bank has implemented is the Healthy Futures Initiative, which Melton said is an approach to distributing healthy food to children. Through this initiative, the food bank hosts the Backpack Program, where food banks send students home from school on Fridays with a backpack of food. Melton said that with 918 kids being served every Friday, the program costs about $225,000, and the money from the grant will help sustain it.

“We serve about 100,000 individuals each year and about one third of those individuals are actually children,” Melton said. “This $45,000 grant is specifically for child hunger.”

Restoration Urban Ministries in Champaign runs a food pantry that buys food from EIF. Lisa Cramer, office manager and volunteer coordinator for the ministry, said she hopes the food bank wins the grant. 

“The more grants that they get the more food they can afford to give us,” Cramer said. “If they get a grant, then they reduce the price that we pay, and we can feed more people.”

There are 123 other food banks in the competition. The 40 organizations with the most votes will receive $45,000 grants and the following 60 with the most votes will receive $20,000 grants, according to the Wal-Mart app. Users can cast votes until April 30. 

Ariell can be reached at [email protected].