Food For Others Donation Marks Amazon Fresh Opening In Franconia

FRANCONIA, VA — Amazon made a $10,000 donation to Food for Others to make the recent opening of the Franconia Amazon Fresh location, the first Amazon Fresh on the East Coast.

On Thursday, officials gathered at the store to celebrate the donation. Food for Others is a Northern Virginia-based organization providing food assistance to over 3,000 families per week. The organization saw a large spike in demand for food assistance at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We are proud to support the communities in which our employees live and work and on behalf of our employees, I’m proud to present $10,000 to Food for Others, who is fighting hunger and food insecurity by providing free groceries to over 3,000 families in the region every week," said Adrienne Kirkpatrick, district manager for Amazon Fresh. "We are proud to be a part of the fabric of this community; to provide safe, fresh and affordable food shopping options to our customers; and importantly, to support the efforts of Food for Others in caring for our local community members."

The Amazon Fresh store opened on May 27 at the Festival at Manchester Lakes shopping center. Amazon's new concept grocery store seeks to offer competitive low prices on national brands, produce, meat, seafood and prepared foods. Smart technology featured at the store includes the Amazon Dash Cart allowing shoppers to skip the checkout line or using Alexa to manage shopping lists and navigate store aisles. The store is open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.

Amazon continues to hire at the Franconia Amazon Fresh store and is now hiring Washington, DC and Chevy Chase, Maryland locations. The store employs hundreds of workers with a starting $15 per hour wage and benefits.