Senior feeding program receives boost from Schulze Family Foundation
$350K donation provides nutritious meals for low-income seniors in SWFL
FORT MYERS, Fla. (DATE, 2025) – A pledge to double donations to Harry Chapin Food Bank’s Care and Share Senior Feeding Program resulted in a $350,000 contribution to the hunger-relief organization.
The Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation offered to match – dollar for dollar – any donation to Care and Share. The program provides low-income seniors in Charlotte, Collier and Lee counties with pre-packaged food kits that contain easy-to-prepare meals and shelf-stable fruits, vegetables, proteins, cheeses and grains. When possible, the Food Bank also supplements food kits with fresh produce and other perishable foods.
“Many retirees in Southwest Florida are struggling to make ends meet, and the Care and Share programs helps ensure our most vulnerable neighbors have access to nutritious food,” said Richard Leber, president and CEO of Harry Chapin Food Bank. “These are individuals who worked their careers in education, hospitality, health care and other fields, and probably never imagined they would be struggling with something like food insecurity. The generosity of Southwest Floridians and the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation means that thousands of seniors will not have to go hungry tonight.”
It’s estimated that one in 12 Southwest Florida seniors experience food insecurity and do not always know where their next meal is coming from. The $350,000 matching donation from the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation will provide 700,000 meals for local seniors.
“Inspiring residents of Southwest Florida to make donations through our Foundation’s matching grant is a valuable opportunity,” said Mary Beth Geier, Florida director for the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation. “Our collective goal in partnership with Harry Chapin Food Bank is to ensure that our vulnerable seniors have access to food.”
This was the fifth consecutive year that the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation has offered to match up to $350,000 in donations to the Care and Share Senior Feeding Program. The pledge was met every year.
About
About Harry Chapin Food Bank
Harry Chapin Food Bank, a Feeding America partner food bank, is the largest hunger-relief organization in Southwest Florida and serves 250,000 neighbors monthly through its Feeding Network of 175 agency partners. In 2024, the nonprofit distributed 39.5 million pounds of food, the equivalent of 32 million meals, at food banks and mobile pantries across Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry and Lee counties. Harry Chapin Food Bank is an Agency Partner of United Way and a Blueprint Partner of the Naples Children & Education Foundation, rated as a Four-Star Charity by Charity Navigator and Platinum-rated by Candid’s GuideStar. For more information, please visit HarryChapinFoodBank.org or call 239-334-7007.
About Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation:
The Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation was created in 2004 by Best Buy founder, Dick Schulze, to give back to the communities where Dick and his family grew up – in Minnesota, where he built Best Buy to become the world's largest consumer electronics retailer, and in Florida, where he now maintains a permanent residence. The Schulze Family Foundation creates grant partnerships with organizations that generate meaningful results in human and social services, education, and health and medicine. In all its activities, the Foundation embraces its founder’s vision to strengthen and support initiatives that lead to change within our communities. For more information, please visit www.SchulzeFamilyFoundation.org.