Safeway: Portland Is a Natural City

CAROL ANGRISANI

PLEASANTON, Calif. — Safeway's Facebook fans named Portland, Ore., "America's Most Natural City." Portland received more than 1,000 votes in the promotion sponsored by Safeway's Open Nature private-label brand.

Facebook fans were asked to vote which U.S. city exhibited exemplary natural-living practices. The designation means Portland's Parks and Recreation Department receives $20,000 and 25 picnic tables. The tables are from Safeway's recent World's Longest Picnic Table promotion, which earned it a Guinness World Record.

Portland plans to use some of its winnings to build an all-natural running track at an elementary school.

"This is exciting news since the Open Nature-driven contest was inspired by celebrating all things natural and nothing beats the natural energy of kids hitting the track in the great outdoors of Portland," Nancy Cota, Safeway's vice president of innovation, consumer brands, wrote in the official Safeway blog.