Foundations don’t always put their money where their mouth is, but in the case of the Walmart Foundation, they put money – $467 million – where some of the hungriest mouths were in 2009, and a chunk of that change came to The Campus Kitchens Project.

The Walmart Foundation released a statement that the parent company had contributed more than $467 million in cash and in-kind gifts in the United States by January – increasing funding by $89 million from the previous year.

The Foundation also re-focused its philanthropy, doubling donations to food banks and giving more than 127 million pounds of food from Walmart stores, distribution centers, and Sam’s Clubs, an increase of 81 million pounds over last year.

Part of both the cash and in-kind gifts came to The Campus Kitchens Project network last year, enabling both the opening of and continued feeding at Campus Kitchens.

The Campus Kitchen coordinator at Washington and Lee University picked up 5000 pounds of food from the Lexington, Va. Walmart last November. Also in 2009, students from the Campus Kitchen at the University of Nebraska, Kearney worked through their local food bank to gather bakery donations from the town’s Walmart.

More recently, the Walmart Foundation turned its local influence on The Campus Kitchens Project into a national commitment, pledging $300,000 for the creation of six new campus kitchens over the next two years.

“One of our areas of focus is hunger relief,” said Maeve Miccio, Project Manager of the Walmart Foundation. “In light of the economy we have really shifted our focus to meeting basic needs.”

Miccio said that the combination of hunger relief, service, and sustainability makes The Campus Kitchen Project a good fit for the Walmart Foundation. She also said the Foundation appreciated grassroots nature of each individual kitchen as it is tailored to fit the needs of the community.

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