Piggly Wiggly Carolina Co. Backs Public Education

On the heels of the unveiling of the South Carolina Teacher of the Year in Columbia, Piggly Wiggly Carolina Co. is hosting a two-week in-store promotion to benefit South Carolina Future Minds, a 501(c)3 organization dedicated to promoting excellence in the Palmetto State’s K-12 public schools.

Through May 29, every Piggly Wiggly Carolina Co. store will sell Mueller’s Pasta at the special price of 99 cents per box to help support public education in South Carolina. Twenty-five cents from the sale of every box will go directly to the organization, up to $10,000.

South Carolina Future Minds works to connect private donors with every public school in the state through innovation efforts. The organization also runs the annual South Carolina Teacher of the Year Award and hosts Teacher Appreciation Month each May, programs that both Piggly Wiggly Carolina Co. and Mueller’s actively support.

By the end of 2012, Piggly Wiggly Carolina Co. will have donated hotel rooms to house all District Teachers of the Year from across the state for the South Carolina Teacher of the Year Celebration, and Mueller’s will have contributed more than eight tons of pasta to 160 local public schools. The pasta is a central part of statewide “Spaghetti Night” school fundraisers.

The Columbia-based manufacturing facility for Mueller’s, one of four in the nation, produces 320 million of the 1 billion pounds of pasta consumed annually in the United States.

The partnership “represents local companies banding together to support an important local cause like South Carolina Future Minds that will enhance education for students throughout the state,” noted Christopher Ibsen, director of corporate affairs at Piggly Wiggly Carolina Co., which is also based in Columbia.

Piggly Wiggly Carolina Co. has nearly 100 stores and more than 4,000 employee-owners across South Carolina and coastal Georgia. The company is Progressive Grocer’s 2012 Independent Retailer of the Year.