Supermarket Chain Gifts $200k To Struggling Restaurants During COVID-19 Pandemic

Supermarket CEO Todd Schnuck of supermarket chain Schnuck’s went above and beyond to help out both his employees and local restaurant establishments struggling due to the pandemic. He gave $200k worth of 14,000 gift cards for his employees to spend at the restaurants in the area to help out.

“We’re a family-owned business. We’ve been in business for 81 years and we often talk about being a company of families and in this case we thought about our food family and broader than just our own business, we thought about those that add such vibrancy to our communities and those are the restaurants and the restaurant workers,” he tells America’s News HQ.

Todd Schnuck of supermarket chain Schnuck’s wants to help out those struggling in his community

Schnuck thought of the initiative as a way “we could thank our teammates who have been working so hard this year through the whole pandemic while paying it forward to a degree.” The company stated that each Schnucks employee would receive a $15 gift card to a restaurant located within five miles of their work location.

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The employees are happy to receive the gift card but even happier to help out

The employees themselves also love the initiative. “They love getting the gift card itself, but what they really liked was that they can help by using that, they’re helping others,” Schnuck says. “And our mission as a company is to nourish people’s lives and it goes more than just feeding our customers, but it’s taking care of our teammates and it’s taking care of our communities and so they really saw this as a way that we are living on what we profess.”

He adds that it has been extremely worth it to be able to help those in need. “Frankly the supermarkets have been a beneficiary during this time because more people [are] eating at home, the restaurants [have been] closed down so it was good for us to take some of that and help out those that are struggling,” Schnuck says.