Community Service Spotlight
NATIONAL REPORT -- Giving back through community service efforts and charity donations is a positive force that keeps many retailers and suppliers of this industry moving ahead. On a regular basis, Convenience Store News highlights these philanthropic efforts in this special section.
Here are the latest company spotlights:
Chevron U.S.A. Inc.
Chevron U.S.A. Inc. expanded its Fuel Your School program to 14 U.S. communities this fall, up from nine in 2012. Designed to support education for local public schools based on the specific requests of each classroom, Fuel Your School helps meet the critical need for classroom funding in various communities where Chevron operates.
Last year, Chevron funded $4.49 million worth of classroom projects. This year, from Oct. 1 through Oct. 31, Chevron will contribute $1 to help fund eligible classroom projects when consumers purchase eight or more gallons of fuel at participating Chevron and Texaco stations in the participating communities, up to a total contribution of nearly $7.1 million.
Since its inception in 2010, Fuel Your School has helped fund 8,915 classroom projects at 1,924 schools.
In other company news, Chevron Corp. will give $2 million to Louisiana State University (LSU) in support of the renovation of its Patrick F. Taylor Hall, which houses the university's College of Engineering. The company also committed an additional $700,000 to the LSU College of Science. Chevron's donation will go toward establishing an engineering student academic support center and a petroleum engineering teaching laboratory.
Convenience Valet
Convenience Valet will donate a minimum of $250,000 annually to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals (CMN) based on proceeds from items with the CMN logo on them. The logo will be on brand-name products from manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Bayer HealthCare and Prestige Brands.
Since 1983, the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals organization has raised more than $4.7 billion — most of it $1 at a time — for 170 children’s hospitals across the United States and Canada. Retailers can support the effort by buying Convenience Valet’s carded over-the-counter medications, personal care and general merchandise items from their distributor.
Hess Corp.
Hess is partnering with Ohio’s Belmont College to provide scholarship opportunities to students. The Hess Corporation Scholarship will be awarded to incoming and current students enrolled full and/or part-time in an associate degree or certificate program. Multiple awards, valued at up to $3,000 each, will be awarded.
Hess is also partnering with Ohio’s Eastern Gateway Community College Foundation Inc. to offer $10,000 in scholarship funds to assist displaced workers and other students in pursuing higher education at the local community college. Hess hopes to help displaced workers and other job seekers returning to college further their education and regain employment. Several scholarships will be awarded, valued at up to $1,000 each.
MillerCoors
MillerCoors is using less water to brew its beers. According to the 2013 MillerCoors Sustainability Report, the brewer decreased water use by 6.1 percent to a record low of 3.82 barrels in 2012. By comparison, some U.S. breweries use as much as 6.62 barrels of water to produce a single barrel of beer.
MillerCoors also reported that by teaming up with The Nature Conservancy, the brewer built a Showcase Barley Farm in Idaho’s Silver Creek Valley to pilot new farming techniques that save water. Using innovative techniques, the farm has saved more than 270 million gallons of water over two years. The company is expanding these efforts to water-stressed areas in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado.
The report also detailed MillerCoors’ waste-reduction efforts. In June, its Golden brewery announced that, through employee-driven efforts, it achieved zero waste to landfill status, meaning it eliminated more than 135 tons of waste per month that was previously sent to landfills.
Miller Oil Co.
The Miller Oil Foundation distributed more than $25,000 to charities in the Hampton Roads, Va., area. Grant recipients included EdMarc Hospice for Children, Equi-Kids Therapeutic Riding Program, Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia, ForKids, and St. Mary’s Home.
The money was raised, in part, through The Hearts of Hope campaign that ran in Miller’s Neighborhood Markets in January and February. This year’s campaign more than doubled last year’s efforts. In addition, the Foundation’s annual Charity Golf Classic and Chairman’s Reception are the largest fundraisers of the year.