CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) — Grocery store chain Giant presented a check for $60,000 to the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank at the store’s Pantops location on Friday.

While this recent donation was made to commemorate its anniversary, the Giant locations within the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank’s region, which covers 25 counties, have donated to the food bank annually. According to the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank’s Chief Philanthropy Officer Karen Ratzlaff, Giant has been donating to it for at least 25 years, giving over $2 million and 11 million pounds of food in total, in addition to tens of thousands of volunteer hours.

“It’s a collective effort from everybody at Giant,” she said. “We’re so grateful.”

This year, the donation was presented on Feb. 6 to commemorate Giant’s 90th anniversary. Jonathan Spears, a fresh sales manager with Giant, said afterward that while they make a donation every year, the stores wanted this year’s to tie in and represent its anniversary.

“We do a lot,” Spears said of Giant’s community outreach. “Between food bank donations, we sponsor Little League baseball teams. We do a lot of different things throughout our company to support our community. It’s just, seeing our logo on different things throughout the community has been huge for me and my family.”

Spears had the opportunity to speak with some of the food bank’s representatives at Friday’s event. He said afterward it was “huge” to learn how many families Giant’s donations are supporting and how much of an impact they’re making.

Giant’s most recent donation will go to support the food bank’s Family BackPack program, which provides elementary school students and families at risk of hunger with bags of nonperishable every Friday and on the last day before breaks, ensuring those children have nutritious food while away from school.

Ratzlaff said donations like Giant’s are vital to work the food bank is doing to support its community.

“The whole food banking model is a grassroots one,” she said. “The food that we acquire, the money that we acquire, the volunteer hours that we acquire, it all comes from local support, and that’s how we do our work. We couldn’t meet our mission without this kind of support.”

Ratzlaff added that for her and her colleagues, knowing they have the community’s support and events like Friday’s is “what gives us the energy to go forward every day,” and reminds them they are not alone in their efforts.

“There are many people who may not be standing in a food bank or a food pantry packing boxes,” she said, “but they still care about the cause, and they’re stepping up to help in whatever way they can.”