Nutella has partnered with the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) for a third year, to award $25,000 in fire department grants.
The partnership is back for another year as Nutella shared its aspirations to shine a light on those who spread positivity in their local communities through “Stacks for Giving Back”.
New to this year, Pearl Milling Company, the official pancake partner of Nutella, are providing an additional £25,000 in grants.
According to the announcement, consumers can also nominate fire departments to give them a chance to receive Nutella Pancake Breakfast Kits to help pull off their next pancake fundraiser.
Volunteer fire departments often struggle to find adequate funding to purchase needed equipment, recruit and retain firefighters and keep up with high pressure demands due to increasing call volume, new training requirements and more.
Nutella launched the Stacks for Giving Back program to help departments secure the necessities they need to best serve their communities.
Nutella and its collaborators will award $5,000 grants to 10 deserving departments.
To be eligible to apply, departments must be over 50% volunteer, serve a population of 25,000 or less, be located in the US, and have an NVFC member. Applications are due 30 April.
In addition, many fire departments rely on donations received through local fundraising events.
Nutella hopes to honor and celebrate all that firefighters do by providing them with the materials and tasty products they need to hold a fundraising pancake breakfast.
This year, 350 departments will be awarded a Pancake Breakfast Kit containing the necessary supplies and ingredients – including Nutella, Pearl Milling Company pancake mix and much more – to host their next fundraiser.
Consumers have until 30 April to nominate a department.
The Nutella Stacks for Giving Back grants are making a big impact on local departments.
The Landis Volunteer Fire Department in Marshall, AR, was able to purchase SCBA tanks and wildland fire protection equipment and gear thanks to the 2025 grant.
Department Treasurer Lucina Rolen explained: “Leveraging the grant money by purchasing new and pre-owned personal protective equipment from online suppliers allowed us to provide more equipment to better protect our firefighters when they are protecting the community.”
The Cleveland (AL) Volunteer Fire Department is now able to put all of their trucks in service thanks to the equipment and tools they purchased with the grant.
Assistant Fire Chief David Hackworth shared: “Morale has improved, training has improved and members can now work on and train on a truck that was out of service and unavailable until we received this grant, which enabled us to get the equipment we needed to move enough resources to use this valuable truck.”
According to the NVFC, Chili Fremont Fire & Rescue was able to get more bang for their buck thanks to the grant.
They had planned to use the grant to purchase stabilization struts and step chocks, but after communicating the purpose of the grant with the vendor they were able to also add in rescue tools and high visibility vests to better protect their responders.
