Michelle Grantham, human resource manager for the Walmart Distribution Center in Brundidge, was the program guest of Rotarian Moses Davenport Wednesday.

Grantham said, although she lives in Enterprise, she is a product of Pike County and calls Brundidge home.

Grantham said Walmart’s commitment to helping people save money and making life better for its customers is evident in its support of the communities it serves.

Grantham said Walmart operates under 71 banners in 27 countries.

In 2014, Walmart had sales in excess of $473 billion with 2.2 million associates worldwide and 1.3 million associates in the United States alone.

The Brundidge Walmart DC has 661 hourly associates and 63 managers. The DC is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and is closed only on Christmas Day. Many of the DC associates travel a rather long distance each day and come from areas as distant as Andalusia, Montgomery and Eufaula.

“Walmart has two types of Distribution Centers, the grocery, which the Brundidge DC is, and the regional DCs,” Grantham said. “The grocery DC handles everything that would be considered a grocery item and the regional DC handles everything that is not groceries.”

The Brundidge DC sits on 20 acres and serves 100-plus stores in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Louisiana.

“The Brundidge Walmart DC is committed to recycling and, in 2014, recycled 2,342 pounds of plastic, 144,000 pounds of scrap steel and 547,000 pounds of batteries,” Grantham said. “The DC also donated one million pounds of food to the Montgomery Area Food Bank.”

Grantham said the Walmart Foundation supports local communities through grant awards to schools, cities, volunteer fire departments, youth sports and arts events.

Walmart associates are encouraged to volunteer their time and talents to their communities.

The Brundidge DC associates support four organizations a year. Recently, they supported the Pike County Relay for Life, the Pike County Heart Association, Pike County Elementary School and the Salvation Army.

Fifty associates, individually, donated at total of 250 hours to each of the four organizations and, for their efforts, Walmart donated $5,000 to each organization.

In 2014, Walmart also awarded 75 grants to local non-profits and the associates gave $21,312 back to their community through Walmart’s payroll deduction plan.

Walmart associates give to other agencies through payroll deduction including the United Way and Indian, Hispanic and Negro college funds.

Since 1987, Walmart has donated more than $700 million to the Children’s Miracle Network.

Walmart’s commitment is to helping people save money and live better, Grantham said.

“Our associates are encouraged to be active and involved and give back to their communities and they do,” she said.