Carolina Fitness maintains a spirit of giving back. For the past three years, the franchise has stationed a food donation bin in each of the clubs’ lobbies 24/7 for First Fruit Ministries, an outreach center that helps the homeless and houses women who suffered from domestic violence, substance abuse and homelessness.

Every two weeks, Reid Wolfe, regional manager for the Choquette family’s group, loads his car with the donated food and drops it off at the First Fruit Ministries’ food pantry, which is hosted twice a week. The organization highly appreciates the generous work of the franchise group.

“Reid and his team do such an amazing job collecting donations each week for our food pantry. We cannot thank Planet Fitness^® and its members enough for our continued partnership and the truckloads of food each month,” said Alicia Newber with First Fruit Ministries.

The franchise group’s generosity doesn’t stop there. It also hosts another donation drive each month. Carolina Fitness’ staff members choose a different organization to donate to each month, and at the end of the month, they deliver the donations to the organization. Some of the organizations they have chosen to donate to this year have included The Carousel Center, Skywatch Bird Rescue, The Tides, Heidi’s Hope for Homeless Animals, a BGCA donation push and a back-to-school supply drive, in which the donations went to local Title I schools. All the organizations were thankful for Carolina Fitness’ help this year.

Trish Arnold, founder and CEO of Heidi’s Hope for Homeless Animals, said, “We are so grateful for their support and dedication to helping pets in need! Thanks to their generosity, we will be able to continue our mission providing food and supplies to homeless animals in the area.”

Carolina Fitness owns and operates four clubs. All of the clubs were involved in the donation drives, including the three in Wilmington and one in Shallotte, North Carolina.