OREANDA-NEWS. June 07, 2016. CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE: CTL) will hold its annual CenturyLink Backpack Buddies Food Drive June 6-17 to support more than 150 food banks in the communities the company serves across the United States. As part of this effort, CenturyLink is inviting local residents to join its employees in supporting the food bank of their choice when they visit the CenturyLink virtual donation site: www.centurylink.com/fooddrive.

CenturyLink started its annual Backpack Buddies Food Drive in 2009. The goal of the drive is to generate donations for local food banks and help raise awareness of the need for backpack programs. Backpack programs are crucial to children who rely on school breakfasts and lunches to meet their nutritional needs each day. These programs provide nutritional, shelf-stable meals for at-risk students over weekends and school breaks.

The CenturyLink Clarke M. Williams Foundation will offer a match of up to \\$1 million to be allocated to participating food banks based on the amount of donations directed to them through the online drive. By leveraging this match, donors can increase the impact of their gift and help provide more meals to those in need in their community.

Since 2009, CenturyLink's Backpack Buddies Food Drive has contributed more than four million pounds of food and over \\$7 million to local food banks across the country. In areas where backpack programs are offered, 50 percent of the CenturyLink Foundation match is directed to those programs.

"Hunger is a need in every area and we're fortunate to have a network of food banks working together to address this need. We're glad to be able to offer an easy online donation option to help provide meals to people who are struggling to put food on their tables," said CenturyLink's Manager of Community Relations Kristy LaCroix. "We recognize the increased demand for food during the summer when children are out of school, and we invite our friends and neighbors to become CenturyLink Backpack Buddies by joining us in supporting this effort."

According to Feeding America, the nation's largest hunger relief organization, the Feeding America network provides emergency food assistance to an estimated 46.5 million people annually, including 12 million children and seven million seniors.

About CenturyLink

CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) is a global communications, hosting, cloud and IT services company enabling millions of customers to transform their businesses and their lives through innovative technology solutions. CenturyLink offers network and data systems management, Big Data analytics and IT consulting, and operates more than 55 data centers in North America, Europe and Asia. The company provides broadband, voice, video, data and managed services over a robust 250,000-route-mile U.S. fiber network and a 300,000-route-mile international transport network. Visit CenturyLink for more information.