The five million meals were donated through the MGM Resorts Feeding Forward program. Many were the result of grants to organizations that focus on hunger relief and funded meals donated to local nonprofit organizations. Other donations involved rescuing unserved food from multiple points along the Company's food and beverage operations and safely delivering donations into the communities in which MGM Resorts operates across the United States.
"We are extremely proud of the environmental and social impacts of this program," said Jyoti Chopra, Chief People, Inclusion and Sustainability Officer at MGM Resorts. "This incredible achievement is the result of innovation, creative drive and the hard work of our people, all of which allows us to recover food of all types at a significant scale and help our neighbors struggling with food insecurity. In keeping with this year's World Hunger Day theme, our company is committed to breaking the cycle of malnutrition and building a thriving world."
The most innovative aspect of the Feeding Forward program is the donation of prepared food from buffets and events, which addresses the major environmental concern of food waste alongside the societal challenge of food insecurity. Trays of food are cooled, packaged and frozen in on-property blast chillers, ensuring safe storage temperatures before the meals are redistributed into the community. They are then donated to Three Square Food Bank, where items are added to the inventory and distributed to food insecure people. More than 130 hunger relief agencies have selected prepared frozen meals from Three Square's online ordering system.
According to 2023 data from the national nonprofit Feeding America, there are more than 274,000 Southern Nevada residents—one in eight people—who struggle with food insecurity. Together with this and other programs, MGM Resorts is committed to food security in all of the regions in which it operates, with recent grants to hunger relief organizations that total nearly $375,000, including nearly $195,000 to organizations in Southern Nevada. Local organizations to receive funding include Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada, HELP of Southern Nevada, the Just One Project, Nevada Homeless Alliance, Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Las Vegas Inc and the United States Veterans Initiative.
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Published May 28, 2024 3pm EDT / 12pm PDT / 8pm BST / 9pm CEST