BrianGarst.com

Wal-Mart is pledging $2 billion to “help fight hunger:”

Wal-Mart announced plans Wednesday to donate $2 billion over five years to food banks and hunger relief organizations, one of the largest charitable efforts that the nation’s largest grocer has undertaken.

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“Increasingly, we see opportunities to use this scale and reach to solve challenges in our community,” said Eduardo Castro-Wright, head of the retailer’s U.S. operations, at a news conference on Capitol Hill.

Wal-Mart has partnered with several lawmakers, government agencies and nonprofit groups for the initiative. The Congressional Hunger Center, the House and Senate hunger caucuses and the Department of Agriculture backed the effort.

But Wal-Mart has already done more to fight hunger than all these charitable organizations by bringing affordable food to all corners of the country.  I’m not saying they can’t do good here as well, as charitable food banks serve an important function, but at the end of the day, economic growth and affordable goods provide the greater impact for long term hunger reduction, and that’s what Wal-Mart has always done.