California, Nevada & Arizona Food & Grocery Retailers Conducting In-Store Donation Programs For Haiti Relief

Food & Grocery Retailers Respond to Haiti

Last Tuesday's 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti struck at the heart of a country with already extreme poverty and serious developmental challenges.

Like most of you we've read about and watched the events in Haiti with a deep sadness. And like many of you we've also done what we can to help in terms of offering monetary donations, as well as encouraging others to do the same.

Want to help? Google has compiled a good list of Information, resources, and ways you can help survivors of the Haiti earthquake. It's a good place to start.

America's food and grocery retailers, as well as many of those throughout the world - and their suppliers - have hit the ground running in terms of making donations and raising funds for the various agencies that are on the ground assisting the survivors of the earthquake in Haiti.

Here's a list compiled by the Blog Natural~Specialty Foods Memo of many of the U.S. and global food and grocery retailers and their suppliers providing aid to the various agencies offering relief in Haiti. We've been following the list since last week - and it continues to grow. The industry's efforts so far are truly impressive.

Numerous food and grocery retailers with stores in California, Nevada and Arizona - the three states where Tesco has its 135 Fresh & Easy food and grocery markets and a key focus of our coverage and analysis of the industry - are holding in-store customer donation programs to raise cash for the various non-profit agencies aiding the victims of the earthquake in Haiti.

All of the retailers are offering to accept customer donations at the point-of-sale at store checkstands, either accepting cash or letting shoppers round-off their total purchase, donating whatever amount the customer desires to Haiti relief efforts through the respective food retailer.

Below is a list of food and grocery retailers raising money for Haiti relief in the three states. We will add others if and when we obtain additional information.

California

Southern California and Central Valley

Safeway Stores in all of its Vons and Vons Pavillions banner supermarkets in Southern California and the Central Valley, from Bakersfield to Fresno. Click here for details.

Kroger's Ralphs/Food 4 Less chain in all of its Ralphs and Food 4 Less banner stores in Southern California and the Central Valley, from Bakersfield to Fresno. Click here for details.

Save Mart Supermarkets in all of its Central Valley Save Mart and FoodMaxx (including Fresno and Bakersfield regions) stores. Click here for details. [Note: Save Mart Supermarkets said today (01/18/2010) it raised $85,000 in its stores over the weekend (01/16-01/17) in just its first two days of fund-raising.]

Whole Foods Market in all its stores in Southern California and the Central Valley. Click here for details.

Northern California

Safeway Stores in all of its Safeway and Pak N Save banner stores in Northern California. Click here for details.

Kroger's Foods Co warehouse stores at all Northern and Central California locations. Click here for details.

Save Mart Supermarkets in all of its Lucky, Save Mart, SMart and FoodMaxx banner stores in Northern California and the Central Valley. Click here for details.

Raleys Supermarkets in all of its Raley's, Nob Hill Foods, Bel Air and Food Source banner stores throughout Northern California. Click here for details.

Whole Foods Market at all its stores in Northern California. Click here for details.

Nevada

Safeway Stores in all of its Safeway and Vons banner stores in Nevada. Click here for details.

Kroger's Smiths Food & Drug in all of its Nevada stores. Click here for details.

Kroger's Ralphs/Food 4 Less in its Food 4 Less banner stores in Nevada. Click here for details.

Whole Foods Market in all its stores in Nevada. Click here for details.

Arizona

Safeway Stores in all of its Arizona Safeway banner supermarkets. Click here for details.

Kroger's Fry's supermarket chain and Smiths Food & Drug in all Arizona stores. Click here for details. [Note: Kroger Co. said today (01/19/2010) it's already raised $600,000 in all its U.S. stores (including the chains in our list) for Haiti relief, and that it expects the total to be over a million here.]

Bashas' Supermarkets in all of its Bashas', Food City and AJ's Fine Foods banner supermarkets. Click here for details.

Whole Foods Market in all its stores in Arizona. Click here for details.

Drug chains: California, Nevada, Arizona

The Rite Aid drug chain, which has numerous stores in California, Nevada and Arizona, is selling $1 disaster relief certificates in all of its stores in these three states and in its stores located throughout the U.S. All of the donations collected from the sale of the certificates will be donated to the American Red Cross International Response Fund. Click here for details.

Fresh & Easy Parent Tesco Donates to Haiti Relief; CEO Leahy Makes Personal Donation

Tesco plc., the United Kingdom-based parent company of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA, has donated £50,000 (pounds) - $81,645 U.S. - to the British Red Cross to assist in the agency's earthquake relief efforts in Haiti, according to Lucy Neville-Rolfe, executive director at Tesco's headquarters in Cheshunt, Herts, England.

"We [Tesco plc] are shocked by the devastation that the earthquake has caused in Haiti. We have made a donation of £50,000 through the British Red Cross who have already arrived in the area. Our donation will help thousands of families who have survived the earthquake with family kits containing vital items such as blankets, tarpaulins and first aid kits. The British Red Cross do outstanding work and it's an honour to work with them in such tragic circumstances," she says.

Mark Astarita, the director of fundraising for the British Red Cross, says: "Tesco are leading the way with their generous and swift donation to our Haiti earthquake appeal. Thanks to them we can immediately send lifesaving relief supplies to the people of Haiti, who have lost everything in the earthquake."

Tesco's donation is part of the emergency partnership between Tesco and the British Red Cross which began in 2000, according to executive director Neville-Rolfe. The British Red Cross was Tesco's charity of the Year in 2007/2008.

Tesco CEO Leahy makes personal donation

In addition to the donation made by Tesco, Britain's The Sun'newspaper is reporting that Tesco plc CEO Terry Leahy has made a personal donation to Haiti relief as part of "The Sun's Helping Haiti" appeal, which the British newspaper kicked off on Friday, January 16.

Tesco CEO Leahy's donation was among those made by a group of British sports stars and celebrities, along with a donation by the The Sun, which raised £250,000 (pounds) - $408, 575 U.S. dollars - on the very first day of the newspaper's fundraising campaign (Friday, January 16), the paper says in a story here.

The amount of Tesco CEO Terry Leahy's personal donation isn't disclosed by the newspaper in its story.

Readers: For a comprehensive and regularly updated list of U.S. food and grocery retailers - and their suppliers - that have donated to Haiti relief efforts see the Natural~Specialty Foods Memo Blog here.