Safeway Donating 1.8 Million Holiday Meals to Food Banks

PLEASANTON, Calif. -- Safeway Inc. expects its 2006 holiday food drive efforts -- through a series of nearly 40 regional food drives with dozens of food banks and hunger relief programs across the company's operating areas - will result in more than 1.8 million meals donated to needy families and individuals.

"Supporting food banks and other hunger relief programs is the largest single component of our charitable outreach efforts," said Larree Renda, Safeway e.v.p. and chair of The Safeway Foundation. "The holiday season gives us an important opportunity to help raise awareness of hunger in our communities and to collect food for those who need help this holiday season."

This year alone, Safeway will donate more than $110 million in food products and financial contributions to community food banks, food pantries, and other hunger relief agencies. The company has donated more than $1 billion in food products nationwide during the last 10 years.

Safeway stores are located in 21 states, the District of Columbia and Canada, and operate under the Vons, Pavilions, Dominick's, Tom Thumb, Randalls, Genuardi's, Carrs, Pak 'n Save, and Safeway banners. The stores, in partnership with customers, hunger relief agencies, government, and community organizations deliver food products to community-based organizations throughout the year. The company spends November and December teaming up with those organizations to deliver food and family meals to those in need. All of these efforts will help provide the equivalent of more than 1.8 million meals to families and individuals.

While most of these efforts involve collecting and managing donated food, others focus on serving hot meals during the holidays. In all, Safeway will help provide more than 1.5 million pounds of food, 24,000 turkey dinners, $200,000 in monetary donations and hundreds of volunteers to serve meals. Below are examples of the annual hunger relief projects that Safeway is sponsoring this holiday season:

Safeway operates 1,767 stores in the United States and Canada and had annual sales of $38.4 billion in 2005.
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