Safeway Opens Voting in ‘The Art of Dairy’ Contest

Safeway, Inc. is holding its eighth annual Lucerne The Art of Dairy Art Contest, in which it invites the American public to vote on art created by students.

Nine student finalists were chosen to compete for a $30,000 grand prize with an unconventional canvas for their legendairy designs -- a life-sized fiberglass cow. Voting will take place on www.artofdairy.com through May 17.

Every 100,000th voter will receive a $100 Safeway gift card (up to the one millionth voter). Plus, now through May 17, people can show their love for Lucerne on Twitter by tweeting a picture of their favorite Lucerne product to hashtag #artofdairy, along with the reason they love that product, for a chance to win one of ten $100 Safeway gift cards. More details about the giveaways and official rules can be found on The Art of Dairy website.

Since the inception of The Art of Dairy contest in 2005, Lucerne has contributed over $373,000 to schools, teachers and students. This year, over 6,400 entries were received from schools across the country.

Leveraging a brand new theme – "ImaginDairy Places" – students were encouraged to express their love of dairy by creating an imaginary world made up of Lucerne dairy products. A panel of judges reviewed the thousands of entries received and selected nine finalists. The finalist cows will be on display in stores, and winners will be announced in early June.

The contest winners will share approximately $46,000 in prizes with their art teachers and their schools' art programs. The grand prize winner will receive $20,000 for his or her school's art department, plus $5,000 each for the winner and his or her art teacher. The first prize winner receives $5,000 for his or her school's art department, plus $2,500 each for the student and teacher. In addition, one honorable achievement winner and his or her teacher will receive $1,000 each. The remaining six finalists will receive $500 gift cards. In addition, the high school that sent in the most entries per capita won $1,000 as part of the Teacher's Incentive Contest. This year's winner, Kearny High School of San Diego, Calif., took the prize with an entry submission rate of 7.84 percent.

The Art of Dairy 2013 finalists are:

• Gissella M.: Weber Institute – Stockton, Calif.
• Hagen A.: Northwest Career and Technical Academy – Las Vegas, Nev.
• Rachel R.: Sehome High School – Bellingham, Wash.
• Sierra N.: Sandy High School – Sandy, Ore.
• Kayla A.: Northwest Christian School – Phoenix, Ariz.
• Yul J.: La Veta High School – La Veta, Colo.
• Melissa P.: Tinley Park High School – Tinley Park, Ill.
• Riley K.: Loudoun Valley High School – Purcellville, Va.
• Nhung (Julie) L.: South Grand Prairie High School – Grand Prairie, Texas

Safeway operates 1,641 stores in the United States and western Canada.