When Shannon Hinton joined Wegmans during the pandemic, she was looking for a part-time position to fill her time until she could return to her work in live music hospitality. Four years later, Shannon has grown her career at Wegmans, now working full-time as the service desk team leader at our Chapel Hill store in North Carolina and overseeing community giving for the North Carolina division.

Spreading Kindness
Shannon got involved with her store’s community giving programs after experiencing Wegmans values firsthand. During her first year with us, Shannon’s mom became ill, and her leadership team stepped up to help.

“They went out of their way to care for me and my family, and made me feel like a part of this larger Wegmans family,” said Shannon. “I just fell in love with our values.”

After taking some time off, Shannon returned to Wegmans and started working closely with her service manager to learn more about our values, which include making a difference through community donations. As a native of North Carolina, Shannon is very familiar with the area and often provided insight into local organizations that contacted Wegmans for a donation request. Over time, she began managing the store’s community giving.

“I saw Wegmans giving to organizations in my community that I care so much about, and it really impressed me,” said Shannon.

Wegmans’ Community Focus
Shannon expressed interest in growing her career in the community giving space, so when a spot opened on our Community Hub Champion Team, she jumped at the opportunity. In this role, she collaborates with the other hub champions who oversee giving in our various divisions, as well as the Community Relations team at our main office. In addition, she seeks out local organizations to partner with, and works closely with the Giving Circles at our N.C. stores.

“We discuss what is going on in our area and we talk through questions, news, or new processes. We get to see what other divisions are doing and we build off each other’s ideas,” said Shannon. “Each store has their own individual giving circle, so of course they can do their own volunteer events with just their store, but I try to find events that all four stores or a couple of stores can participate in together to make a bigger impact.”

Pursuing Local Partnerships
Band Together
As Shannon seeks out local organizations to support, she takes into consideration both Wegmans’ giving priorities and the needs of the local community. Last fall, she connected with Band Together, a nonprofit that raises money for different Triangle-area organizations through live music.

“The concert was raising money for 20 different nonprofits that focus on affordable housing,” said Shannon. “We have so much growth here because of all the tech companies and universities in the area, so affordable housing is a big issue.”

Our stores donated $15,000 for the event, as well as box lunches for 200 volunteers. In the end, the fundraising concert raised more than one million dollars for the Triangle Housing Accessibility Fund.

North Carolina Central University
Education and youth support are two of Wegmans’ giving priorities, and as part of a college town, Shannon works closely with many local schools to provide donations and sponsorships. Our Chapel Hill store is located near North Carolina Central University, a historically black university. In 2023, Wegmans provided the school with a $30,000 athletic sponsorship and snacks for their athlete fueling station, totaling over $60,000. However, Shannon wanted to take our partnership a step further than providing support to the athletic department.

“We have a couple of N.C. Central students that work in our store and one of them told me they have a student-run food pantry at the school,” said Shannon. “I reached out and we were able to give them a $500 gift card to purchase staples for the food pantry.”

Jewish for Good
When Shannon noticed an influx of positive comments about her store’s selection of kosher goods for Passover, she decided to do some research into local Jewish organizations we could support and stumbled upon Jewish for Good.

“Jewish for Good is a hub for the Jewish community in Chapel Hill and throughout the county,” said Shannon. “They have a day school for kids, deliver products and meals to people who are homebound, host community events, run a food pantry, and more.”

Last year, we provided a donation to help the organization create bags of food to deliver to isolated older adults and Jewish families in need. In 2024, we increased our donation for this program and also contributed to their food pantry.

Shannon looks forward to continuing to support the organizations she’s already partnered with and creating new connections throughout the area in the future.

“I can’t say enough about how good it feels to be able to give back to my state and my region,” she says.