During this year’s March for Babies fundraising campaign, Publix customers and associates raised more than $7.5 million.

This brings our 23-year total campaign contributions to an impressive $72 million! We’re proud to help moms have full-term pregnancies and healthy babies.

“We have the best customers and associates in the industry, and together, for more than two decades, we have supported March of Dimes (MOD) and its mission of giving every baby a fighting chance,” said Director of Media and Community Relations Maria Brous. “When we team up our outstanding associates with the generosity of our customers, we’re able to make a real difference in the lives of others.”

Did you know?

• In the 1990s, MOD launched a National Folic Acid Campaign to prevent serious birth defects of the brain and spine, known as neural tube defects. In 1998, the Food and Drug Administration mandated folic acid fortification of the nation’s grain foods. Within a few short years, the number of these birth defects was reduced by 20 to 30 percent.
• In 2003, after more than 30 years of increasing rates of premature birth in the U.S., MOD launched its Prematurity Campaign to confront this alarming trend.
• After years of MOD advocacy, in 2008, all states began to require screening of all newborns for at least 21 serious but treatable conditions immediately after birth.
• March of Dimes’ NICU Family Support program activities are now offered in more than 120 hospitals throughout the U.S. They provide comfort and needed information to families whose babies were born prematurely or need extensive medical treatment.

This year’s campaign theme was Marching for Dreams. Associates’ children were dressed as the professionals they want to be when they grow up.