Giant Food reopened the doors to its newly renovated supermarket at 5316 New Design Road in Frederick on Friday, marking the grocer's second major store investment in the city and kicking things off with a donation of 200 turkeys and 400 pies for local families. The 9 a.m. ribbon-cutting ceremony brought together shoppers, employees and a local hunger-relief nonprofit for a morning that mixed grocery-store glitz with community giving just weeks ahead of Thanksgiving.
The remodeled store's new look includes a full-service sushi bar staffed by an in-store chef, a Ledo Pizza program, expanded seafood offerings, a Nature's Promise Marketplace, a gourmet cheese selection and a wider assortment of prepared foods, according to The Shelby Report. Store manager Christine Drennan said the reopening reflects her associates' dedication to customers and neighbors alike.
At the center of the celebration was a turkey-and-pie presentation to Frederick Rescue Mission, part of Giant Food's broader Thanksgiving push. The ceremony also recognized three associates who helped bring the renovation to life and, in a lighter touch, celebrated a longtime customer's 91st birthday. Shoppers who came through that morning got in on the giveaways too: the store handed out gift cards to 250 customers, a free turkey and pie to 100 customers, free reusable bags at checkout, and samples of private-brand products and vendor favorites.
A Grocer's Long Reach Into Local Food Relief
The turkey-and-pie donation is part of Giant Food's annual Thanksgiving program, which the company says will provide more than $220,000 in grants and 7,000 turkeys across the region this year, per the same Shelby Report account. That regional commitment lands directly in Frederick, where Frederick Rescue Mission says it serves 100,000 meals and provides 25,000 grocery visits each year, according to executive director Jason Earle. The Mission's Food Distribution Center, which it says assists 2,000 families and individuals, relies on a network that includes the Maryland Food Bank, local grocery stores, restaurants, farmers, individuals and organizations, according to its own program materials from Frederick Rescue Mission. The nonprofit has also reported providing 2.5 million pounds of food over the past year, though it does not specify the exact period covered.
The need behind that work stretches well beyond Frederick County. Feeding America estimated that more than 50 million people received charitable food assistance at some point in 2023, with 47,389,000 individuals living in food-insecure households that year. The organization put the national average weekly food-budget shortfall among food-insecure individuals at $22.37, translating to an annual gap of $32.2 billion, and reported that the national food-insecurity rate rose from 10.4% in 2021 to 13.5% in 2022.
Not Giant's First Holiday Push This Year
Giant Food's Frederick donation follows a separate Thanksgiving initiative the company detailed earlier this year, in which it said it would provide 7,800 whole turkeys, 7,500 turkey breasts and 4,000 pumpkin pies region-wide, supporting all five major Feeding America food banks in its service area along with 50 grassroots organizations, according to WUSA9. That same effort included $25,000 in Giant Food gift cards for first responders and veterans, plus a partnership with the D.C. United Foundation to give away 1,000 holiday meal kits to furloughed federal workers and SNAP recipients, each stocked with a turkey breast, a Giant Food gift card, fresh produce, non-perishable sides and a chef-created spice blend.
Frederick isn't the only community that has seen Giant unveil a remodeled store with a charitable twist this year. When the grocer reopened its remodeled Parkville location at 7709 Hartford Road on Aug. 7, the new store added an expanded seafood department, a broader selection of international foods, a Ledo Pizza Corner Shop and a full-service sushi bar with an in-store chef, mirroring much of what Frederick shoppers now see on New Design Road. That reopening came with its own community gesture: an $85,000 donation to the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay to fund sustainability practices on local Maola dairy farms, as reported by East County Times.
Giant Food, based in Landover, Maryland, traces its roots to its first store in Washington, D.C., which opened in 1936. The company now operates 162 supermarkets and 152 full-service pharmacies across Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia, employing roughly 20,000 associates and offering both in-store and online shopping.
