Maryland Food Bank honors corporate partners for donations and volunteer hours
The Maryland Food Bank put a dollar value on corporate volunteerism, citing $12.3 million in lifetime gifts and 333,165 volunteer hours from its top partners.
The Maryland Food Bank used a corporate volunteer appreciation event at its Baltimore headquarters to make a blunt point about hunger relief: employee volunteer time is not a side benefit, it is operating capacity. The food bank said its top corporate partners have supplied about $12.3 million in lifetime donations and the equivalent of 333,165 volunteer hours over the past three years.
That matters in a state where the food bank says one in three Marylanders may face food insecurity. Feeding America estimated Maryland’s 2023 food insecurity rate at 13.3 percent, affecting 824,930 people. Against that backdrop, the food bank said it works through a statewide network of more than 760 community partners, a system that depends on steady labor as much as cash.
Three companies drew special recognition: Giant Food, Northrop Grumman and T. Rowe Price. Giant Food was credited with 288 volunteer hours, worth $8,928 in labor, and more than $4 million in financial support over 32 years. Northrop Grumman was recognized for 1,853 volunteer hours and $309,000 in donations over 18 years. T. Rowe Price was highlighted for 1,147 volunteer hours and $1.2 million in donations over 37 years.
The food bank’s own numbers show why employers are willing to keep showing up. In fiscal 2024, it reported 6,789 volunteers, 15,995 shifts, 37,789 hours and a $1.5 million economic value from volunteer service. It also said those volunteers were equivalent to about 20 full-time staff members. Since it began tracking volunteer activity in 2017, more than 36,000 volunteers have given more than 295,000 hours.
For A Simple Gesture, the message is practical. Corporate volunteerism works best when companies can see a direct line from staff hours to mission output, whether that means warehouse help, pantry support, route work or other neighborhood food recovery tasks that need reliable scheduling. When employers hear that volunteer time has a labor value and a measurable impact, the work stops looking like a one-off service day and starts looking like part of the organization’s operating model.
That is the real workplace story inside events like this one. Longstanding partners do not just help a food bank fill shifts. They help build a culture in which employee giving, retention and team identity can become part of how a company shows up in its community year after year.
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