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:

Alon Brands Inc.
Alon Brands recently gave away a new Ford Escape to the Abilene Alliance for Women & Children in Texas. The donation is part of the company's new "Cause for Cars" program.

This marks the first of four gifts in the company's yearlong Clean 13 program, which gives Alon consumers the chance to enter and vote for deserving community champions to win vehicles.

The Abilene Alliance for Women & Children has supported women and their families since 1920.

BP plc
BP is donating $500,000 to the tornado relief effort in Moore, Okla. The company said $300,000 will come from BP America Inc. and $200,000 from the company’s foundation. The money will go to the American Red Cross to help with emergency needs.

This donation is in addition to a fund that employees donate to, which the company matches. BP workers in eastern Oklahoma also delivered a trailer stocked with relief items. BP has about 600 Oklahoma employees.

Budweiser
Budweiser has never before used social media to help direct where in the United States a portion of its charitable support goes. That is now changed with a new summer program that uses a free smartphone application (app) called Blippar.

This summer, as Budweiser donates up to $1.5 million to the Folds of Honor Foundation, the brand is asking its customers to help choose which U.S. states receive a portion of the proceeds.

How does it work? The iconic brand is asking adult beer lovers to:

• Download Blippar from the iPhone store or Google Play.
   
• "Blipp the Bowtie" by opening the app and aiming the smartphone screen at the Budweiser bowtie logo found on all Budweiser packaging, including the new "red, white and blue" packaging now in stores. This triggers the interactive mobile experience.
   
• Pick a U.S. state to help determine where a portion of the philanthropic support will be directed as they learn more about the Folds of Honor Foundation, which provides educational scholarships to the families of soldiers wounded or fallen while serving their country.

The 10 states with the most support are eligible to receive a total of $100,000 of dedicated scholarship funds in 2014.

Through a series of videos available through the Blippar app, Budweiser drinkers also get a chance to "meet" some of the men and women who have benefited from the support of Folds of Honor.

Each Folds of Honor scholarship has an approximate value of $5,000, allowing Budweiser to provide up to 300 scholarships from coast to coast from this summer's program.

At the end of the summer, the top 10 states chosen by consumers will be allocated two Folds of Honor 2014 scholarships for eligible applicants based on the Blippar program.

Kellogg Co.
With the goal of sharing 1 million breakfasts with kids throughout America who might otherwise go hungry, Kellogg Co. served up breakfast at convenience store corporate headquarters across the country. The third annual “Share Breakfast” campaign was sponsored by Kellogg’s and Action for Healthy Kids, America’s largest non-profit volunteer organization working with schools, families and communities to help kids be healthy and ready to learn.

During National Breakfast Week, Kellogg hosted Share Breakfast events at several convenience retailer’s headquarters, including Gate Petroleum, Holiday Stationstores, The Pantry Inc. and Thorntons Inc.

For every breakfast an employee shared, Kellogg donated money to Action for Healthy Kids to help increase school breakfast participation.

Kum & Go LC
Kum & Go joined the American Red Cross disaster relief effort in Oklahoma. The retailer harnessed its network of more than 400 stores across 11 states to raise money for the victims of the deadly tornados.

Kum & Go’s in-store campaign gave customers the option of adding $1 to each purchase they made at its locations. Every dollar donated went directly to the Red Cross for relief efforts. The campaign ended today.

Rutter’s Farm Stores
Rutter’s Children’s Charities raised more than $110,000 for central Pennsylvania charities at its 11th annual golf outing. Since its beginning in 2002, the two-day outing has raised over $1 million for children’s charities.

The Make-a-Wish Foundation of Greater Pennsylvania, the Chambersburg Hospital and the York Little Theater are among the charities that will receive a portion of the proceeds from this year’s outing to continue their work with children throughout Rutter’s service area.

This year, in place of sponsorship plaques, Rutter’s donated $1,000 for each day of the outing to the Wounded Warrior Project, an organization that assists wounded veterans and their families as they return home. Rutter’s will also make a $2,000 donation to the Loganville Volunteer Fire Company in honor of its Volunteer Fire Chief Rodney Miller, who was killed in the line of duty on April 28.

Texas 7-Eleven Franchise Owners' Association
For the second consecutive year, the Texas 7-Eleven Franchise Owners’ Association has pledged to raise at least $25,000 for Swim Across America – Dallas (SAA) by selling donation flags during the month of May in the more than130 franchise-owned 7-Eleven stores throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

The Texas 7-Eleven Franchise Owners' Association is once again a title sponsor of the SAA Dallas open water swim event on June 8 in Rockwall, Texas.

In its first year as the title sponsor, the association donated $30,000. All proceeds raised benefit the Innovative Clinical Trials Center in the Baylor Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center at Dallas, the largest outpatient cancer center in north Texas dedicated to cancer care, research and education.