SpartanNash Partners with Special Olympics

Grocery distributor and retailer SpartanNash is launching a companywide fundraising campaign for Special Olympics programs where corporate-owned retail stores are located.

Running April 27 through May 8 at more than 160 stores and fuel centers in nine states, the campaign will allow customers to donate $1, $5 or $10 to their local Special Olympics chapter while at the checkout lane. For each donation, shoppers will receive four coupons toward Spartan or Our Family brand products.

Stores will hold additional fundraising activities during the 12-day fundraiser. All donations raised will benefit the local Special Olympics’ affiliate programs in the communities where the funds are raised.

Special Olympics partner for 3 decades

SpartanNash (formerly Spartan Stores) has been the presenting sponsor of the Michigan Special Olympics Summer Games for 31 years. The company has also supported Special Olympics Minnesota Summer Games since 2003 through the former Nash Finch Co. based in Minneapolis, including sponsoring and serving meals at their Friday dinner and volunteering at the summer games.  In 2014, Special Olympics Minnesota awarded SpartanNash its Outstanding Business/Corporate award.

In addition to more than $8.6 million in financial support, SpartanNash has associates who volunteer their time at the Michigan and Minnesota State Summer Games.

Each year, SpartanNash also presents a Healthy Athlete of the Year award to a Special Olympics Michigan athlete who exemplifies a healthy lifestyle and the Special Olympics Oath: “Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.”

The 2016 SpartanNash Michigan Healthy Athlete is Ben Dornoff. He will be featured on the packaging of bottles of Spartan brand water during the month of May. The specially designed bottles will be on store shelves at locations throughout Michigan. Dornoff will appear at five stores throughout Michigan to meet shoppers and sign autographs.

For the first time, SpartanNash has also selected a Healthy Athlete from Nebraska. Jason Gieschen will be featured on the packaging of bottles of Our Family brand water, which will appear on store shelves throughout more than 40 states. Gieschen will meet shoppers and sign autographs at five stores across Nebraska.

While at the stores, both athletes will be autographing personalized trading cards created by SpartanNash, which contain information about their personal and athletic achievements.

“It is our privilege to have partnered with Special Olympics in Michigan and Minnesota for years, and we are so excited to expand this partnership throughout our corporate retail stores in seven additional states,” said Meredith Gremel, executive director of the SpartanNash Foundation and VP of corporate affairs and communications for SpartanNash. “Diversity and inclusion are part of who we are, whether we are working along those with physical and mental challenges, cheering them on at the games, or providing funding and resources for the athletes throughout the year. Our customers have been tremendously generous in joining our support, and we are most thankful for their contributions.”  

Grand Rapids, Mich.-based SpartanNash's core businesses include distributing food to military commissaries and exchanges and independent and corporate-owned retail stores located in 46 states and the District of Columbia, Europe, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Bahrain and Egypt. SpartanNash currently operates 163 supermarkets, primarily under the banners of Family Fare Supermarkets, Family Fresh Markets, D&W Fresh Markets, Econofoods and SunMart. 

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