Card Briefs: Amex Ending Program That Fought Hunger

American Express Co. is ending its Charge Against Hunger program to sink more dollars into marketing its card products.

The four-year-old program raised $20 million for hunger relief in the United States through partnerships with merchants.

American Express spokesman Gregory Tarmin said the company is not ending other not-for-profit activities. He said the Charge Against Hunger program was supposed to run only three years but was extended.

Word of the program's demise first appeared in Advertising Age.

Each year the program was running, American Express donated 3 cents from every transaction made during the holiday shopping season-Nov. 1 to Dec. 31-to Share Our Strength, an anti-hunger organization.

American Express recently gave the organization a $500,000 grant over three years for another program, Operation Frontline, which teaches low- income people about nutrition and how to shop for food on a limited budget. American Express continues to be Share Our Strength's largest corporate sponsor.

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