The Safeway Foundation Helps Fight Childhood Obesity

The Safeway Foundation announced today it is giving $2 million to community health programs and hospitals to launch grass-roots projects for the prevention and treatment of childhood obesity. The Innovative Approaches to Preventing Childhood Obesity grants are a part of an overall outreach and commitment to community health that has become synonymous with Safeway Inc., one of the largest supermarket companies in the U.S. "Our commitment is to strengthen communities, create pioneering programs, expand services and implement new strategies to support the health of children and teens," says Larree Renda, Safeway Executive Vice President and Chair of the Safeway Foundation. "These funds will allow doctors, researchers and others in the medical and healthcare communities to launch effective new programs and evaluate the effectiveness of existing ones with the goal of helping children live happier, healthier lives." The Safeway Foundation's partner in this effort is Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland in Northern California. In early 2012, the partners invited organizations to apply for grants of up to $100,000 for grass-roots childhood obesity projects in the geographic areas served by Safeway, Vons, Pavilions, Tom Thumb, Randalls, Carrs and Dominick's stores. Specifically, they looked to promote collaborations between the medical community and local community-based agencies to help children become more physically active, improve food choices and create better access to healthy foods. More than 150 organizations applied for funding. Some of the programs to receive funding include:

The following organizations also received grants to fight childhood obesity:

Safeway and The Safeway Foundation have a long history of supporting health and wellness programs throughout North America. In addition to raising more than $180 million for breast cancer and prostate cancer research and treatment, they have raised $133 million for organizations that conduct neuromuscular disease research and provide medical services and outreach to people with disabilities. Additionally, the company's health and wellness product offerings, along with its wellness programs geared toward its own employees, have earned Safeway recognition and awards from the supermarket industry, the business community and in the Corporate Social Responsibility world. In 2012, for the second year in a row, Safeway was named to Ethisphere Institute's list of World's Most Ethical Companies and has been repeatedly named to the American City Business Journals' list of Healthiest Employers (Bay Area). Modern Healthcare Magazine named Safeway CEO Steve Burd to the list of the Most Powerful People in Healthcare, recognizing his work on healthcare reform.