How ALDI Pours Its Heart Into Good Causes
Something as simple, refreshing and nostalgic as a glass of lemonade can have the power to change the world. That’s the thought and hope behind Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF), which aims to fight childhood cancer one cup at a time.
ALSF was created by Alexandra “Alex” Scott, who set up a lemonade stand to raise funds for cancer research while she was undergoing treatment. She passed away at the age of eight, but her vision and legacy live on in the nonprofit group led by her parents, Liz and Jay Scott.
Alex’s bravery and entrepreneurial spirit has captured the attention of people and organizations around the world who support ALSF, including ALDI U.S. Chief Operating Officer Dave Rinaldo thinks about Alex often, in fact, as he steers the operation and its corporate sustainability efforts that include a major program supporting ALSF. Earlier this summer, ALDI announced that it is one year ahead of its goal to raise $10 million dollars for ALSF by 2026.
Progressive Grocer recently spoke with Rinaldo about what the accelerated progress toward that milestone means.
Progressive Grocer: How did ALDI get involved in ALSF and how does it reflect your own approach and commitment to corporate sustainability?
Dave Rinaldo: Every once in a while, you meet a partner and it really clicks, like it clicked with Liz and Jay. We sent them cookies for them to open up — it was the COVID era — that said "ALDI will raise $10 million over five years" for ALSF. I will never forget Liz and Jay’s response to that.
The partnership has evolved and strengthened over the course of many years now. The partnership means a lot to them and it means a lot to us. We will hit the $10 million mark after four years and we’ve been able to do this in a time frame that we thought was beyond aggressive.
PG: How does Alex’s resonate with you on a personal level?
DR: In this world, the term "hero" is flippantly thrown around sometimes. But what Liz and Jay have done to honor their daughter, who ultimately raised $1 million through lemonade stands before she passed away at eight, is heroic. They had successful full-time careers and stepped away to start the Foundation. It inspires everyone in their organization to not stop until pediatric cancer is defeated. In my most honest moments, I’m eternally grateful that they are part of our business.
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This is my 25th anniversary with ALDI. I have seen many different partnerships, and haven’t seen one resonate like this one. You hear and see stories about bake sales, teams running races, plus the amount of lemonade I’ve seen in stores, parking lots and employees’ houses! The thing that has allowed this kind of engagement is our customers and employees who have come to understand Alex Scott and what she stood for.
PG: There’s something unifying about the idea of lemonade, too.
DR: I’ve done lemonade stands with my kids, and thousands of our employees have done this with their own kids. People connect with it — there is a beautiful simplicity about what Alex did, and there is something approachable about this entire topic.
PG: And the people behind this mission, right?
DR: I’ve heard Liz and Jay speak live multiple times. The emotion they speak with, you’d think this was so recent. They are tremendous ambassadors who work and grind every day because this is their mission.
I lost my own dad to cancer 10 years ago. For me, this is relevant, too. Twenty-five million Americans will have an immediate family member with cancer. Alex had no platform — she was a little girl with cancer and created a movement. ALDI has a platform, and from the bottom of my heart, I am so proud that we take this cause and amplify its mission. There’s been amazing progress in research and survival and treatment rates have improved, but there is still a ton of work to do.
PG: How is this program one facet of ALDI’s corporate sustainability platform, which you seem to be focused on just as strongly as your ambitious growth trajectory?
DR: We talk a lot about purpose as an organization. We feel the imperative need to make the people around us and the planet we live on a better place as a result of our business — that is not just "PR speak." We could talk another hour about everything we are doing in growth and sales, but philanthropy and community is at the center of what we do. It’s not an "either/or" for us.
