'Shop for Schools 2010': Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Raises $1.3 Million For Local Schools

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has raised $1.3 million in its third annual Shop for Schools fundraising program - nearly double the amount raised last year - which it's giving to participating schools in California, Nevada and Arizona, where the fresh food and grocery chain has its 173 stores.

About 2,000 kindergarten through eighth grade schools participated in the 2010 school fundraising program, according to Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market. The program ran from September-December 2010.

Any kindergarten through eighth grade school located within a three-mile radius of a Fresh & Easy store can participate in Shop for Schools by signing up in advance of the program's start. For every $20 spent by customers at a Fresh & Easy store from September 15 to- December 31, 2010, participating schools received a $1 donation. In addition to collecting receipts, which the schools then submit to the grocery chain, registered schools can also participate in Fresh & Easy Shopping Nights, which are four hour (4 p.m.-8 p.m.) designated shopping blocks, organized for each specific participating school. Fresh & Easy donates 5% of all purchases made during the shopping night to the school. [Click here for the program's official rules.]

The three winning schools this year, one each in California, Nevada and Arizona, are:

>Southern California: Sunset View Elementary - which raised $10, 815 (first place)
>Arizona: Christ Lutheran School - which raised $8,114
>Nevada: R.E. Tobbler Elementary School - which raised $7,707

In addition the getting the amount of money they raised, Tesco's Fresh & Easy awarded each of the three winning schools a $5,000 bonus for raising the more money thn all the other participating schools.

This year's first place win is a repeat for Sunset View Elementary, which also took first place honors in last year's  Shop for Schools program. Watch and listen to the reaction of the school's Shop for Schools coordinator, Tori Curtis, and some of the Sunset Elementary students, in the brief video here, as they're told they've won for the second year in a row.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market first launched Shop for Schools  in spring 2009, raising more than $130,000 for schools in California, Nevada and Arizona. Last year (fall 2009) Fresh & Easy and its customers raised $670,000 for the participating schools. [See the stories linked at the end of this piece for details about the 2008-2009 programs.]

This year's record $1.3 million raised is due to a combination of factors, including: greater participation by schools, parents, teachers and students; more schools signing up for the program; the designated shopping nights; and the fact Tesco's Fresh & Easy opened numerous new stores in 2010, which expanded the geographical reach of the program.

That geographical reach will be even greater for the 2011 Shop for Schools program, which Fresh  Easy Neighborhood Market plans to kick-off in mid-May, because the grocery chain has now expanded into Northern California, where its opened eight stores so far this year, with three additional new units opening on April 27.

Additionally, for the first time Fresh & Easy is planning to offer schools the ability to register for the fundraising program online, which should make it even easier for more schools to get involved.

Numerous grocers are raising money for local schools. Among the major chains doing so include: Walmart Stores, Target, Safeway Stores, Inc., Kroger and others. Numerous local smaller chains, such as Mollie Stones Market's in Northern California and others, also regularly donate money to schools in their market regions.

The need by schools for supplemental monies from grocers and others continues to grow, particularly in states like California, Nevada and Arizona, where school budgets are being challenged do to serious financial stresses being experienced by state and local governments and public school districts.

For example, John P. Cole, a public school trustee in Clark County (Las Vegas) Nevada says about Fresh& Easy's Shop for Schools program and supplemental aid to schools in general: "I am thoroughly impressed that Fresh & Easy uses such an innovative and productive approach to becoming a welcome partner in its communities through assisting local schools. Although programs such as this should never be considered as a replacement of any of the state's responsibility to adequately fund education, it does allow local schools to raise funds for a wide variety of program uses. These kinds of community partnerships are a much needed boost in difficult times such as these," Cole says.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market will be posting information on its website in Mid-May about its 2011 Shop for Schools program.

Related Stories

September 16, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Launches 2010 'Shop for Schools' Program; Shopping Nights Add Foot Traffic & Sales

May 14, 2009: Fresh Buzz - News & Notes About Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market: Fresh & Easy to Give $131,145 to Area Schools

February 9, 2009: Grocers & Community: 769 Schools in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona to Participate in Tesco Fresh & Easy's 'Shop For Schools' Program

January 23, 2009: Fresh & Charitable: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Extends Deadline For Schools to Register For School Fundraiser Program

December 17, 200: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Launches 'Shop for Schools' Fund-Raising Program to Aid Schools Near its Stores

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Launches 2010 'Shop for Schools' Program; Shopping Nights Add Foot Traffic & Sales

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has launched its third-annual 'Shop for Schools' program.

Fresh & Easy kicked off the program - which raises money for participating schools in the communities in California, southern Nevada and Metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona, where its 165 fresh food and grocery stores are located - yesterday, at the grand opening of its newest store in Fresno, California. [You can read our story about the two new Fresh & Easy stores that opened yesterday, one in Fresno and the other in next door Clovis, here: September 15, 2010: Two New Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Open in Fresno, California Region Today.

In the 'Shop for Schools' program, participating schools receive a $1 cash donation from Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market for every $20 register receipt collected by students, parents, teachers, school staff and others, from any Fresh & Easy store.

The program runs from September 15 -through- December 31, 2010.

At the end of the program, Fresh & Easy awards the top fundraising school in each of the three states a $5,000 bonus, in addition to the amount of money raised by the schools during the program.

This is the third year the program is being held by Tesco's Fresh & Easy. Last year, all the participating schools combined raised a total of about $800,000. Read our stories at the links below for information and details about the previous years' programs:

>May 14, 2009: Fresh Buzz - News & Notes About Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market: Fresh & Easy to Give $131,145 to Area Schools

>February 9, 2009: Grocers & Community: 769 Schools in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona to Participate in Tesco Fresh & Easy's 'Shop For Schools' Program

>January 23, 2009: Fresh & Charitable: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Extends Deadline For Schools to Register For School Fundraiser Program

>December 17, 2008: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Launches 'Shop for Schools' Fund-Raising Program to Aid Schools Near its Stores

Shopping nights = added foot traffic and sales

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has found a way to leverage the 'Shop for Schools' program into increased foot traffic and sales in its stores, by creating what it calls 'Shop for Schools Shopping Night(s).'

The shopping nights are organized events in which parents, students, friends, teachers and school staffers at the participating schools get as many people as they can to shop at a Fresh & Easy store from 4 pm -to- 8 pm on the night their specific school is designated as having a 'Shop for Schools Shopping Night.' [How the shopping nights work is depicted in the graphic above, and here.] As part of the event, Tesco's Fresh & Easy donates 5% of all sales during the four hour period to the school. For example, If $10,000 is taken in during the four hour shopping period, the school gets an added $500 from the grocery chain.

Fresh & Easy Buzz has talked to a number of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market store managers, who've told us the shopping nights bring added foot traffic and sales, ranging from 15% -to- 40%, to their stores on the days the events are held.

Additionally, last year, one of the key strategies for the three winning schools - one in California, one on Nevada and one in Arizona - was that parents, school staff, students and others were able to round up throngs of friends and family to shop during the four hour shopping night event for their respective school.

Grocers & community

We suspect participation in this year's program will be even greater than it was last year for a couple of reasons.

First, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has opened a number of additional stores since the end of the last 'Shop For Schools' program ended, as well as extended its geogrpahical reach a bit.

Additionally, the 'Shop for Schools' program has become more known now that it's in its third year.

Lastly, and unfortunately, public schools in California, Nevada and Arizona are struggling economically as much this year, and in some cases even more so, than they were last year do to the continued economic recession and high unemployment, along with the fact that the federal government funds distributed to school districts from the early 2010 economic stimulus package are about all dried up.

As such, programs like Fresh & Easy's and others, like Safeway Stores Inc.'s annual '10% Goes Back to Schools,' program, which is currently going on and is in its sixth year, can provide much needed assistance, particularly for programs and other things needed but no longer allocated for in current very lean school district budgets.

Thousands Get 'Cheesy' at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Co-Sponsored Grilled Cheese Competition in Los Angeles

The Sunday Supplement

Well-over 10,000 grilled cheese sandwich lovers from all walks of life filled downtown Los Angeles, California on Saturday (April 24, 2010) for the 1st 8th Annual Grilled Cheese Invitational (not a typo), America's premiere grilled cheese sandwich-making competition and festival.

The grilled cheese-focused competition and festival was held from 12 pm -to- 6 pm at Los Angeles Center Studios, (1201 West Fifth Street) in downtown Los Angeles.

For $15 at the door - and a mere $10 in advance - grilled cheese "sammich" (the organizer's shorthand for sandwich) lovers and fun-seekers got to have a full day of cheesy fun. The event also included a food festival (and a beer garden) featuring a wide variety of goodies to eat and drink. Numerous other events also took place.

The grilled cheese invitational, which was created by Los Angeleno Tim Walker in 2003 and held in a residential loft downtown as a competition between the grilled cheesemeister-in-chief and some of his friends, has grown into a national movement dedicated to perfecting the art of the grilled cheese sandwich.

The Los Angeles competition has spawned numerous regional grilled cheese sandwich competitions across the U.S., such as one in Austin, Texas, which nearly rivals the Los Angeles flagship event in size. The Los Angeles invitational remains the "big cheese" though.

The humble (but increasing more upscale and therefore not 100% humble) grilled cheese sandwich has never been more popular than it currently is in the U.S. Not only are people making the sandwiches at home like never before - and using a variety of different cheeses rather than the standard American slice - but more and more restaurants of all types have and are putting grilled cheese sandwiches on their menus.

Additionally, restaurants focusing on grilled cheese sandwiches have opened in Southern California, New York and in a few other U.S. cities over the last couple years. [A few examples.] There's even a grilled cheese sandwich-focused food truck or two among the hundreds (some say thousands) of food trucks roaming the streets of Los Angeles every day.

Basically, the continued and increasing popularity of the grilled cheese sandwich in America is all about comfort (memories of childhood food), affordability and - taste.

For example, we enjoy a grilled-to-perfection (need to use butter) provolone or mozzarella grilled cheese, with a slice of tomato and a couple leaves of fresh basil (some sauteed mushrooms on occasion), on sliced sourdough bread.

For those comfort food times, we also like the traditional version (with real American cheese not "cheese food though), along with at least a half dozen other versions.

This points up another reason the grilled cheese sandwich is so popular - its like a blank canvas on which a sandwich-maker can create dozens of different versions, using various cheese varieties and other ingredients, limited only by his or her imagination, and some common culinary sense.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy brings the bread as co-sponsor

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market signed on as one of the sponsors of yesterday's Los grilled cheese competition, which the organizers call "the best thing to happen to sliced cheese since sliced bread," this year.

In fact, speaking of sliced bread, Fresh & Easy's official title as a sponsor for the competition was "Official Bread Sponsor."

The "Exclusive Cheese Sponsor," (yes, the head cheese) of the event was Oregon-based Tillamook Cheese company." Tillamook also was the lead sponsor of the grilled cheese competition.

Additionally, there was an "Official Potato Chip" sponsor - Boulder Canyon Natural Foods - and an "Official Soft Drink" sponsor - Izee Sparkling Juice.

And what self-respecting grilled cheese sandwich competition wouldn't include an "Official Tomato Soup" sponsor? Not this one. That honor went to another Oregon-based company - Pacific Natural Foods. [Full sponsor list.]

As part of its sponsorship of the grilled cheese extravaganza, Tesco's Fresh & Easy received prominent mention at the event, such as signage and other forms of media. And of course the sponsorship is touted by the grilled cheese competition's organizers on the event website here.

Additionally, at the event yesterday, members of the Fresh & Easy team were passing out $5-off store coupons. We were told by an event organizer that every person attending the 1st 8th Annual Grilled Cheese Invitational was to get one of the Fresh & Easy coupons.

One of the highlights of yesterdays grilled cheese festival and competition was the "Cheesy Costume Contest," which was added for the first time this year. The contestants for that competition turned out in a variety of very creative costumes. Trust that Wisconsin's famous "Cheese Heads" had nothing on this group.

Even more interesting, there was a "Cheese Calling Contest," which was similar to a hog calling contest but without the oinking or the odor. Although some squealing was reported to have been heard during the contest.

We suggest signing on as a sponsor of the grilled cheese competition and festival was a good marketing move to do for Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market.

First, the demographic of those attending the grilled cheese festival yesterday skewed to younger and more urban. This is the demographic we've found to most like the Fresh & Easy format, and to shop most frequently at the stores.

Additionally, being the official bread sponsor of the event provides Fresh & Easy the opportunity to do some creative merchandising and marketing in the coming weeks. Good merchandising and marketing is all about integration, after all. And event sponsorship offers that opportunity for a grocer.

For example, the grocer should consider a major promotion featuring all of the various items that can be used to make grilled cheese sandwiches - numerous varieties of cheese and bread, butter, tomatoes, fresh herbs and on and on. Along with the main ingredients Fresh & Easy can feature some of the endless varieties of products that go well with a grilled cheese sandwich - soups (especially tomato), snack chips, pickles, beverages and the like.

If Fresh & Easy Buzz were advising Tesco's Fresh & Easy, we would suggest the grocer partner with the other food and beverage sponsors of yesterday's grilled cheese invitational - Tillamook Cheese, Boulder Natural Foods (potato chips), Pacific Foods (soups) and Izee (sparkling juices) - along with adding some additional (besides bread) Fresh & Easy store brand items that relate to the grilled cheese sandwich theme - and build displays featuring the items in all of the stores.

We'd include on the displays colorful point-of-purchase signage touting the event and the winners, which will be announced tomorrow.

We would also tout the promotion in the weekly Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market advertising flyer with a headline reading something like this: "The winners of the Los Angeles grilled cheese sandwich competition use Fresh & Easy brand bread." All of the grilled cheese sandwich themed promoted items would then go below the headline in the ad flyer. (We actually would have done the displays and promotion leading up to the event, putting the promotional focus on the then upcoming grilled cheese competition. But its not too late. The grocer could just put the focus on the winner aspect, as mentioned.)

Third and last, we suspect starting tomorrow (yes, were early), Saturday's grilled cheese invitation will get lots of press attention in the Southern California media. That's because tomorrow, April 26, is when the event's organizers will announce the winners of the grilled cheese competition in its various categories.

That could (and should) create some buzz in the market for Fresh & Easy, assuming it makes sure to be mentioned as a sponsor of the event by contacting members of the print and broadcast consumer press in Southern California starting early tomorrow morning.

Fresh & Easy Buzz hasn't seen a press release to date from Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market about its sponsorship of the grilled cheese sandwich competition. That's a mistake on the part of the grocer's marketing and public relations staff, since there's real local news and human interest value in the grocery chain's sponsorship of the event, by virtue of the fact there's lots of interest in the event in general.

Finally, sponsoring the event shows good community relations and involvement by Fresh & Easy, which is a solid positive, even if it can't be quantified in terms of sales volume.

Since the announcement doesn't come until tomorrow (April 26, 2010), we can't end this piece with a list of the winners of the big grilled cheese competition.

But tomorrow you can go to the grilled cheese invitational website for a list of all the winners of yesterday's downtown Los Angeles grilled cheese sandwich competition.

Meanwhile, a grilled cheese sandwich sounds like a pretty good idea for today's lunch.

Grocers & Community: 769 Schools in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona to Participate in Tesco Fresh & Easy's 'Shop For Schools' Program

Fresh & Easy Buzz was the first publication we are aware of to report in this December 17, 2008 story [Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Launches 'Shop for Schools' Fund-Raising Program to Aid Schools Near its Stores] that Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market was launching what it calls its "Shop for Schools" program, in which the grocery and fresh foods chain is giving participating schools in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona $1 out of every $20 spent by shoppers at Fresh & Easy stores from February 1 -to- March 31, 2009, based on store receipts collected by parents and students and submitted to the grocer.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy did issue this press release announcing the program on January 7, 2009, resulting in reports by a number of publications about the "Shop for Schools" program, following the distribution of the release.

On Friday (February 6), Tesco's Fresh & Easy announced that 769 schools in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona have registered for the "Shop for Schools" program.

That's a healthy number of schools, which doesn't surprise us in the least bit because public schools in California, Nevada and Arizona are struggling at present in ways not seen for decades. The schools need all the financial assistance they can muster right now in order to just keep the programs they have in place, as well as to do simple things like purchase essential supplies such as paper, pens and books, which many teachers use their own money to buy for their classrooms. [Tesco's Fresh & Easy had extended the school registration deadline, which we wrote about in this piece on January 23.]

Here's what Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Arizona region manager Al O' Donnell says about the program, and about the fact that 159 public schools (out of the 769 total) have signed-up in the Phoenix, Arizona Metropolitan region, the Arizona market where the grocer has its stores: "The interest in our 'Shop for Schools' program has been incredible. We've received a great response from parents, teachers and staff who are all very excited to help increase their schools' budgets, said We are happy to be able to help support our local schools especially in a time when school budgets are so tight."

Public school budgets are extremely tight throughout the U.S., and especially so in California, Nevada and Arizona, three of the states hardest hit by the housing foreclosure crisis and the huge decrease in housing values. On average, housing values in California, Nevada and Arizona are down by 25 -to- 50% in just the last year alone.

Since public school districts rely primarily on property tax revenue for most of their operational support, the severe housing foreclosure crisis, along with that rapid decline in housing values (which means lower property taxes and thus less overall revenue) has hit schools extremely hard, resulting in massive cutbacks and even teacher layoffs in the three states.

Fresh & Easy's "Shop for Schools" program started on February 1. It will run until March 31, 2009.

According to the grocery and fresh foods chain, the program works like this: The participating schools are mobilizing parents and students to collect Fresh & Easy store receipts from family members, friends, co-workers and others. The schools then submit the receipts to Fresh & Easy for verification. Once verified, Tesco's Fresh & Easy will cut a check to each school for the amount raised ($1 out of every $20 in receipt totals), and the money can be used for whatever the school needs most.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market also is offering a $5,000 bonus (on top of what is raised by the schools) to the one school in each state that collects the most verified receipts and thus raises the most money. This bonus element should create an added incentive for the students and parents to collect even more Fresh & Easy store receipts than they normally might -- as well as perhaps encouraging family members, friends, co-workers and others to shop at Fresh & Easy as a way to provide added donation dollars to the schools, something the grocer no doubt hopes will happen.

Fresh & Easy Buzz likes what the grocery and fresh foods chain is doing with its "Shop for Schools" program for a couple related reasons:

First, it's the right thing to do. Schools need help badly right now. Grocers aren't just retailers of goods, they also are part of the communities and neighborhoods they do business in. Therefore, education is a business/economic good as well as a community good. It's something we all, businesses and individuals, need to support, for the good of children and for the good of our communities. And on the practical side, the better educated a person is, the more income they generally will make as adults. The more income people have, the more they can spend at the grocery store, and the more taxes they can afford to support schools, for example.

Second, the "Shop for Schools" program fits well with Tesco Fresh & Easy's desire to be known as a "neighborhood" grocer. Programs like this will help it towards achieving this goal, in part. It needs to do much more though.

For example, the independent neighborhood grocer is the model in this sort of community and neighborhood food retailing. From the beginnings to today, America's independent grocers have been and are arguably the most community involved of perhaps any business sector in America. From holding food drives in-store to allowing charities to use the front of the stores for everything from bake sales to Girl Scout Cookie sales, along with supporting a myriad of community institutions -- schools, recreation leagues, food pantries, ect. -- independent, neighborhood grocers have set the bar high in terms of earning the label of "Neighborhood" or "Community" grocer.

Since Tesco's Fresh & Easy wants to be viewed by consumers as a neighborhood grocer similar to the "community-involved" independent, this is the bar Tesco's Fresh & Easy must meet if it wants to be a true "Neighborhood" grocer in anything more than the title of its stores. Programs like "Shop for Schools" are an excellent beginning towards the grocery and fresh foods chain's start in "earning" the "Neighborhood" in "Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market."

We applaud Tesco's Fresh & Easy for its "Shop for Schools" program and encourage the retailer to move forward with similar community and neighborhood-based programs that combine good marketing and community relations with good deeds. Win-wins not only are good for the community -- they also can be very good marketing.

Donors Choose.Org: Readers -- You can help too

Speaking of helping our schools, Fresh & Easy Buzz recently became aware of (and made a contribution of our own using the tool) of a simple way our readers can help public schools -- and students -- without leaving your computer.

That simple way to help is the Web site DonorsChoose.Org, founded by Charles Best, a social studies teacher in the Bronx, New York School District in the New York City Schools system.

Best and his fellow teachers at the Bronx, New York public school where he was teaching were using their own funds to buy basic supplies like paper, pens and books for the school kids, which is something numerous teachers at schools throughout the U.S. do today. But the New York public school didn't have enough money to do much more than that, despite a massive need for other supplies the school district wasn't providing. That, says Best, was the mother of invention for the DonorsChoose.Org Website, a way to link teachers and students in need with potential citizen donors.

Donors Best works this way: Teachers from schools throughout the U.S. submit requests on the Donors Choose Web site for supplies -- ranging from books and other basics to things like a microscope for a biology class -- that students need but the schools aren't providing. People, just like you, can then search the site for specific projects they want to support and make a donation of any amount. There's likely a school in your city asking for help on the Web site.

Founder Charles Best calls the process "citizen philanthropy," saying even a $10 donation goes a long way to helping students. He is right.

Donors Choose -- who's theme is: "Teacher's Ask, You Choose, Students Learn" -- buys the materials you donate your money for within 1-2 days after receiving the donation, Best says. The group then compiles thank you notes from the class that is receiving the materials from donors like you. "This way ordinary folks get the feedback (for your donations) usually reserved for millionaire philanthropists," Charles Best says.

You can choose the specific school and project to make a donation to, and donate as little or as much money as you want and can afford using the Donors Choice Web site. And the site is localized to your state and region, and in most cases county and city as well. Check it out at: http://www.donorschoice.org/. In the words of Martha Stewart: "It's a good thing."