The Giant Company recently announced it has joined the GreenChill program, a voluntary U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) partnership with food retailers, refrigeration system manufacturers and chemical manufacturers to reduce refrigerant emissions and decrease their environmental impacts.

As a program partner, GreenChill provides the Giant Company and other industry stakeholders with information and assistance to transition to environmentally-friendly refrigerants, reduce the amount of refrigerant they use, eliminate refrigerant leaks, implement environmental best practices and adopt green refrigeration technologies. There are more than 12,500 GreenChill partner stores throughout the country.

The Giant Company is currently performing refrigerant conversions, installing leak detectors and replacing older refrigeration units when possible within its nearly 190 stores. For more information on the EPA's GreenChill Program, readers may visit http://www.epa.gov/greenchill.

The Giant Company also announced that it has been awarded the 2020 Gold Plate Award by the FMI Foundation in the COVID-19 Heroes category. This category, which is new to the annual awards program, recognizes charitable programs that help families share meals together during the pandemic.

The Giant Company accepted its 2020 Gold Plate Award for its program "The Giant Company Is for Today's Table" during National Family Meals Month at the virtual FMI Midwinter Executive Conference on Jan. 26. This is the second Gold Plate Award for the Giant Company; it was recognized in 2018 for its "Power of One More Family Meal" campaign.

During National Family Meals Month last September, the Giant Company launched its For Today's Table brand platform, which included refreshed uniforms and store decor, merchandising innovations and more. Customers were encouraged to share photos of their family connecting over a meal on social media using #ForTodaysTable during the month. For every photo shared, the Giant Company donated the cash equivalent to provide 100 meals to neighbors in need.

In addition, ads were developed featuring real families with footage of their daily lives, including mealtime, for television and radio spots.

The Giant Company distributed red tables, benches and picnic blankets throughout the community and to area food banks. On Sept. 26, 2020, National Family Day, the first 100 customers in stores also received a picnic blanket.

The Giant Company rewarded its own team members, as well, providing $100 in Grocery Dollars to each of its 35,000 team members.