SUPERVALU Celebrates Earth Day with New Employee Volunteer Program

Business Wire,  April 22, 2008  

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Earth Day activities highlight company's commitment to environmental stewardship

MINNEAPOLIS -- The corrected item is within the first bullet, changing the date from Thursday, April 25 to Friday, April 25.

The corrected release reads:

SUPERVALU CELEBRATES EARTH DAY WITH NEW EMPLOYEE VOLUNTEER PROGRAM

Earth Day activities highlight company's commitment to environmental stewardship

In honor of Earth Day, SUPERVALU INC. (NYSE:SVU) and its nationwide family of stores, including Acme, Albertsons, bigg's, Cub Foods, Farm Fresh, Jewel-Osco, Lucky, Save-A-Lot, Shaw's, Shop 'n Save and Shopper's Food & Pharmacy, are celebrating Earth Day by launching a new associate volunteer program - Volunteers in Action (VIA) - and participating in month-long Earth Day community and in-store events.

"As one of the largest retail grocery companies in the United States, SUPERVALU is committed to preserving and protecting our environment," said John Domino, SUPERVALU vice president, facilities, energy, environmental and engineering. "We are proud to honor our pledge as environmental stewards, not only through our month-long Earth Day events and activities, but every day through our business operating practices and community relations efforts."

As part of the celebration, SUPERVALU and its stores have a variety of community and store activities planned, some of which are organized by VIA chapters. Some examples include:

* On Friday, April 25, SUPERVALU, in partnership with the Will Steger Foundation, will host a special event at LoveWorks Academy for Arts to educate children on global warming and ways to protect the environment. Students will be given tree saplings to plant in their neighborhoods and reusable, eco-friendly totes to use for future grocery shopping trips.

* On Earth Day, SUPERVALU is participating in a "Weed and Seed" project to benefit local Minneapolis-area Urban Venture locations. The company is cleaning up Urban Venture parking lots, sidewalks and garden areas. Urban Ventures is focused on helping community residents and businesses develop their assets and capacity in ways that nurture livable, sustainable and safe neighborhoods.

* SUPERVALU associates in Boise will distribute 1,000 reusable shopping bags at Zoo Boise's 2008 Party for the Planet, an event that teaches conservation education to the general public. The Party for the Planet is a project of Zoo Boise in partnership with Idaho EarthFest and its twelve affiliated conservation groups.

* Acme is partnering with a number of local organizations to promote Earth Day activities, including Keep America Beautiful (Maryland and North New Jersey), Philly Cares (South New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware), Mayor Nutter's Clean-up (Philadelphia), Clean Ocean Action (New Jersey Shore) and The Great PA Cleanup (Pennsylvania counties). Acme also donated gift cards to environmentally-focused associations and conservancies such as Perkimen Watershed Conservancy and Chester - Ridley - Crum Watersheds Association.

* As the official sponsor of California State Park Foundation Earth Day 2008 Restoration and Clean-ups, Albertsons stores in the Southern California division are participating in a variety of community clean-up events, including the Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, Huntington Beach State Park and Montana de Oro State Park clean-ups. Additionally, for every reusable grocery bag sold April 1 through 22, Albertsons Southern California Division stores will donate five cents to the California State Park Foundation.

* On April 19, dozens of Albertsons Intermountain West Division volunteers celebrated Earth Day with a multi-store effort to clean up parks located within their communities. Additionally, for every reusable grocery bag sold from April 16 through 22, Albertsons Intermountain West stores will donate ten cents to state park conservation efforts within each state the division operates.

* bigg's launched "Discover Your Sixth Sense," a program where customers using eco-friendly, reusable bags will receive six cents off of their grocery bill as well as an additional six-cent donation to a local charity benefiting Keep Cincinnati Beautiful. bigg's will also give away 500 reusable shopping bags and 500 Colorado blue spruce seedling trees to customers at each bigg's location. bigg's will also hold a drawing for a two-year lease on a 2008 Honda Civic Hybrid car.

* Cub Foods partnered with the St. Paul Parks and Recreation Department to host an environmental education and restoration project at Lake Phalen in St. Paul, Minn. During the week of April 13, Cub Foods customers received a free Cub Foods reusable tote with purchase. The grocer also hosted a "Cub 4 Kids Earth Day Scavenger Hunt" on April 19 to educate children on how their family choices affect the environment.

* Jewel-Osco is offering free, re-usable shopping bags complete with product coupons to the first 200 customers at each Jewel-Osco store. Additionally, Jewel-Osco associates are participating in a series of environmentally-focused community relations projects in which the grocer will make a $1,500 monetary donation to each project and will also donate several park benches made of recyclable plastics.