Federated Department Stores, Inc. employees in divisions nationwide are joining together this month to create their third annual "Series of Service" national volunteer project.

Through Federated's national Partners in Time volunteer program, employees in more than 200 cities are organizing food collections for hungry children in an effort to "Bag Hunger." Since the project began in 1998, Federated volunteers have collected nearly 140 tons of food, providing more than 275,000 meals nationwide.

This year, divisional chief financial officers have taken on the additional role of "Chief Food Officers." Federated's CFOs are leading Bag Hunger projects, challenging their divisions to top 1999 collection totals by the highest percentage. As an added benefit, the Federated Department Stores Foundation will give $10,000 in the name of the winning division to local non-profit hunger-relief agencies.

"Bag Hunger is just one of thousands of projects we develop each year as employee volunteers at Federated," said Karen Hoguet, Federated senior vice president and chief financial officer. "Our company has a long history of giving back to our communities, in both time and contributions. In addition to providing food to 'Bag Hunger,' our employees also will give time to hunger relief agencies, packing, sorting and distributing food, as is true to the Partners in Time mission."

Since 1989, Federated's award-winning employee volunteer program, Partners in Time, has grown to include all 14 store and support divisions, while giving nearly 500,000 hours of service to communities from coast to coast. To "Bag Hunger," each division's store and support locations -- more than 400 in all -- have partnered with local hunger relief organizations which impact their own home communities.

Federated, with corporate offices in Cincinnati and New York, is one of the nation's leading department store retailers with annual sales of more than $17.3 billion. Federated currently operates more than 400 department stores in 33 states under the names of Bloomingdale's, The Bon Marche, Burdines, Goldsmith's, Lazarus, Macy's, Rich's and Stern's. Federated also operates the Fingerhut, Bloomingdale's By Mail, bloomingdales.com, Macy's By Mail and macys.com direct-to-consumer catalog and electronic commerce subsidiaries. Other Federated divisions include Federated Merchandising Group, Federated Logistics and Operations, Federated Systems Group and the FACS Group. In addition to the community service contributions of employee volunteers, Federated's national charitable giving totaled more than $15 million last year.

(NOTE: Information on Federated and its operating divisions is available on the Internet at www.federated-fds.com. Copies of past press releases and corporate background data also are available by calling Fax-On-Demand at 1-800-853-9150.)

Federated Direct, Inc.

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