WILLIAMSVILLE — In its committment to end hunger in its local communities, Tops Friendly Markets has partnered with the Food Bank of Western New York, Foodlink, Food Bank of Central New York, and six additional organizations for the Little Brown Bags of Hope holiday campaign as well as its Checkout Hunger campaign.

Tops Friendly Markets recently announced that is surpassed its goal of helping provide more than 3 million meals – equal to 30 tractor trailer trucks of food — which will impact hundreds of thousands of people across the company’s three-state footprint.

“Both of these campaigns offered us the opportunity to come together as a community and show our support for those in need, showing that together we can truly make an amazing difference in so many people’s lives,” said Frank Curci, chief executive officer for Tops Friendly Markets, adding that 100 percent of the donations stayed local to the store where the donations were made.

In total, nine food banks across upstate New York, northern Pennsylvania and Vermont benefitted from these efforts.

Organizers moved away from the physical bags of food during this year’s campaign in order to increase efficiencies, allowing the Food Banks to expedite donations from the store to their operating facilities and then into the market as quickly as possible.

At the register, customers were asked if they wanted to support the campaign by buying a $5 breakfast, $10 lunch, and/or $20 dinner for a family in need in their community.

Also new in 2017, Tops introduced the “virtual” Little Brown Bag of Hope. Customers were able to purchase the same $5 breakfast bag, $10 lunch bag, and/or a $20 dinner bag online by visiting www.topsmarkets.com/littlebrownbags.

The chain’s annual Check out Hunger winter campaign ran in a similar fashion where customers were asked by their cashier if they would like to round up their bill, or make a donation of $2, $3, or $5.

This year alone, Tops, along with its media partners, have worked together to help provide more than 1.7 million meals to families in need through the Check Out Hunger Campaign.

Tops operates two locations in Saranac Lake.