FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 28, 2026
Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry Campaign and Dollar Tree Award Mayors Alliance Action Fund to End Childhood Hunger Grant to Durham
Mayor Leonardo Williams to Utilize $25K Grant to Fight Hunger in the Community
CONTACT: Laura Rice, lrice@strength.org
Durham, NC – Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign and Dollar Tree are proud to announce Durham as an inaugural recipient of the Mayors Alliance Action Fund to End Childhood Hunger (Mayors Action Fund), a grant fund of the Mayors Alliance to End Childhood Hunger (Mayors Alliance). This important initiative, generously supported by Dollar Tree, brings together collective voices and resources to end childhood hunger and strengthen family economic mobility in communities across the country. The city of Durham will receive a total of $25,000 in grant funds to help fight hunger on a hyper local basis. Durham’s Mayor, Leonardo Williams, is a member of the Mayors Alliance.
“I couldn’t be prouder to be the recipient of this generous grant from the Mayors Alliance,” said Mayor Leonardo Williams. “Working through the Durham Benefits Access Coalition, we are bringing together people and organizations across the community to increase our residents’ access to SNAP and WIC. Durham’s residents are leaving millions of dollars of SNAP and WIC benefits on the table each year, and we want to help our food-insecure residents get access to the food benefits that can feed their families.”
Nearly 1 in 5 kids in Durham County today live in families that struggle with food insecurity. They may go without food between the meals they get at school, or their parents may skip meals so their kids can be nourished. When our nation’s children are fueled by healthy, consistent nutrition, we are not simply feeding children, we are supporting the brightest minds and best talents that will shape the future that we all share.
The Mayors Alliance taps into the individual and collective leadership of over 550 Mayors to take meaningful actions to end childhood hunger in cities nationwide. The Mayors Action Fund is in its inaugural year. Generously supported by Dollar Tree, the Fund is being launched to support initiatives in mayors’ communities that they feel are most important to their efforts to end child hunger.
“At Dollar Tree, we believe every child deserves the opportunity to thrive, and that begins with reliable access to nutritious food,” said Jennifer Silberman, Chief Sustainability and Corporate Affairs Officer at Dollar Tree. “We’re proud to support the Mayors Alliance to End Childhood Hunger and to help launch the inaugural Mayors Action Fund, which empowers mayors across the country to take bold, local action against hunger. Through our partnership with the Mayors Alliance and Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign, we are working to build more resilient, equitable communities — one meal, one city, and one child at a time.”
In Durham, Mayor Williams’ plans for use of the grant funds include a series of convenings to foster working relationships among City and County officials, health partners, school partners, community organizations, and community members with lived expertise, focused on providing concrete economic support to Durham residents.
“At a time of mounting food costs and economic uncertainty for families, the Mayors Action Fund is a vital investment in local, community-driven solutions,” said Aaron Goldstein, senior manager of Local Government Relations at Share Our Strength. By supporting the work of visionary mayors like Leonardo Williams, these grants are another tool to help families and children access the resources they need to thrive.”
About Dollar Tree, Inc.
Dollar Tree, Inc. (NASDAQ: DLTR), headquartered in Chesapeake, VA, is one of North America’s largest and most loved value retailers, known for delivering great value, convenience, and a “thrill-of-the-hunt” discovery shopping experience. With a team of approximately 150,000 associates, Dollar Tree operates more than 9,200 stores and 18 distribution centers across 48 contiguous states and seven Canadian provinces under the brands Dollar Tree and Dollar Tree Canada. The company is committed to being a responsible steward of its business – supporting its people, serving its communities, and creating lasting value. Additional information about Dollar Tree can be found at www.DollarTree.com.
About No Kid Hungry
No child should go hungry in America. But millions of kids in the United States live with hunger. No Kid Hungry is working to end childhood hunger by helping launch and improve programs that give all kids the healthy food they need to thrive. This is a problem we know how to solve. No Kid Hungry is a campaign of Share Our Strength, an organization committed to ending hunger and poverty.
