BY BUSY ANDERSON | A new Wegmans grocery store is set to open at Astor Place this fall in an 82,000-square-foot space at the corner of E. Eighth Street. The East Village location will be just the second Wegmans in New York City and the first in Manhattan.
Along with its announcement of the new outlet, Wegmans has launched a fundraising campaign for Food Bank for New York City leading up to the store’s grand opening in mid-October. The campaign started May 12 and will run until June 30, centered around the Wegmans artwork newly displayed throughout Noho, Greenwich Village and the East Village. The Wegmans brightly colored, New York City-centric artwork can be found on its Astor Place storefront, as well as on M.T.A. buses, Wegmans trucks and posters put up in surrounding neighborhoods.
Basically, for every person who takes a selfie next to or in front of one of the pieces of Wegmans artwork, tags it with #MyWegmansAstorPlace and posts it on social media, the chain will donate $1 to the Food Bank for New York City up to $10,000.
Food Bank for New York City reports providing more than 121 million free meals per year, and says each dollar donated helps to provide five meals to those in need. The hashtag is gaining momentum on Instagram with one month left until the donation deadline, and is part of Wegmans’ campaign to build excitement about its debut in Manhattan.
For more information on the #MyWegmansAstorPlace campaign, click here.
$1 for all that work? Here’s a better idea: Take the time you were going to spend giving a corporation free advertising and donate it to an actual effective charity (100+ times more effective than the food bank) through a charity evaluator like http://givewell.com.