Food Lion signs on as CIAA basketball tourney sponsor

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Salisbury-based Food Lion has extended its corporate ties with the CIAA to include naming rights to the conference basketball tournament through the 2026 season.

The CIAA basketball tournament has a title sponsor.

Salisbury-based grocery chain Food Lion has agreed to a three-year extended sponsorship deal that affixes its name to the postseason showcase as the biggest naming partnership in the conference’s 111-year history. Food Lion, which marks its 30th anniversary as a CIAA sponsor next year, has stores in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic where the conference’s 13 member schools are located.

The deal is effective immediately and will continue through the 2026 season. The first tournament under the expanded agreement is Feb. 26-March 3 in Baltimore.

“The CIAA and Food Lion have a partnership that has created meaningful and visible impact for 30 years,” CIAA Commissioner Jacqie McWilliams Parker said in a statement. “I could not be prouder of the Food Lion leadership’s commitment to extend their investment even more into our member institutions, students and community. What is most exciting is that the naming of the CIAA basketball tournament will be ‘Food Lion.’”  

Food Lion has donated more than $7.5 million in scholarships to CIAA schools since the partnership started. Food Lion Feeds, the retailer’s hunger-relief platform, has funded campus food pantries with more than $200,000 in grants to stock food pantries and nutrition lounges at CIAA schools and their local communities.

“Our work together enables us to nourish students not just during their academic careers, but in their lives,” said LaTonya King, Food Lion’s director of diversity, equity and inclusion, organizational development and talent acquisition. “The deep connections we have made in our CIAA communities are a testimony to the impact of our collaboration.”

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