The people who stock the shelves and run the registers at the Meijer store in Lancaster have decided where $10,000 of their employer’s charitable money will land this year — and they split it between teenagers and animals. The STAR MH Foundation and the Fairfield Area Humane Society will each receive $5,000 on Meijer Team Gives Day, Tuesday, November 10, according to a community announcement reported by the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette.
The choice belonged to the store’s own employees. According to the announcement reported by the Eagle-Gazette, the Lancaster team picked the two organizations based on local needs, personal connections and the impact each group has in the community — the way the program is designed to work at every participating store.
The announcement said the team was drawn to youth and teen suicide awareness, the cause the STAR MH Foundation works on, and also wanted to support the care of local animals, according to the Eagle-Gazette’s report. NewsForce247 did not interview the store or the foundation for this story, and the details above come from that announcement as the Eagle-Gazette reported it.
The second recipient is a fixture of Fairfield County animal care. The Fairfield Area Humane Society, at 1721 Granville Pike in Lancaster, describes itself on its own website as the local nonprofit for anything animals — adoptions, veterinary care, boarding and spay and neuter services. Adopt-a-Pet’s shelter profile describes the society as an independent, nonprofit, no-kill organization dedicated to the humane treatment of animals through protection, placement and education.
Meijer Team Gives is built around a simple idea: the people who live in a community know its needs better than a distant headquarters does. Participating stores can give their full $10,000 to a single organization or divide it into two $5,000 gifts, as Lancaster chose to do, and team members choose where every dollar goes.
The program has grown quickly. Meijer Team Gives began in 2021, and reporting by The Packer on Meijer’s own release about the fifth annual campaign put the running total at nearly $15 million donated since the program started, with $3 million going to more than 500 nonprofits in the 2025 campaign alone.
Lancaster is not acting alone on Tuesday. Nine other stores in the region are also taking part in Meijer Team Gives Day, each presenting donations to nonprofits their own employees selected, according to the announcement reported by the Eagle-Gazette.
For the Fairfield Area Humane Society, a $5,000 gift lands in the middle of the daily work of feeding, housing and treating animals that arrive with nowhere else to go. Shelter budgets run on donations and adoption fees, and a four-figure gift can cover veterinary care, food and shelter operations for a meaningful stretch of animals waiting for homes.
For the STAR MH Foundation, the gift supports awareness work aimed at teenagers — a cause the store’s employees singled out themselves. Youth mental health has become one of the most common reasons communities rally around local foundations, and the Lancaster team’s choice puts a national conversation into local hands.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on: the recipients, the amounts and the November 10 date are confirmed by the announcement reported by the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette, and the humane society’s identity and services are confirmed on its own website. The announcement did not include a presentation time or direct comment from either nonprofit, and NewsForce247 has not independently spoken with the STAR MH Foundation about how it will use the funds.
What happens next: the donations will be presented during Meijer Team Gives Day celebrations on Tuesday, November 10, when Lancaster employees hand the $5,000 checks to the two nonprofits they chose. Residents who want to support the humane society directly can find its adoption hours and services through its website; the society lists hours on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Tuesdays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Photo: Nhandler, CC BY