• Social Responsibility

    We are a Family Nurturing Families; we support our local communities by investing in programs that help build healthy communities and increase access to nutritious and affordable food.

    Together with our business units, franchisees, affiliates and employees from across Canada, we contribute millions of dollars to hundreds of community organizations each year.

    From grassroots initiatives to larger partnerships, we work with our local communities to make sure more Canadians—regardless of income, age or ability—have access to affordable, wholesome food; learn basic cooking skills; and receive nutrition education so they can reach their greatest potential.

Responding to the local needs of the communities we serve

In Pictou County, Nova Scotia, Sobeys Inc. is the Title Sponsor each year at the annual Race on the River, a local Dragon Boat Race Festival, a community summer staple for 17 years. The contributions made by Sobeys helped the festival raise over $2 million, for Women Alike Breast Cancer Survivors Society, Special Olympics Northern Region and Pictou County Prostate Cancer Support.

To “proudly serve our communities” is one of our core values. It represents our commitment to operating excellent stores that serve the needs of our customers, and reflects our culture of giving back to the neighbourhoods we operate in. Our ability to give back to the communities we serve is a direct result of our customers, who shop in our stores and look to us to satisfy their food needs.

For over 20 years, the Lawtons Drugs Pro-Am Golf Tournament has raised funds for local charities in Atlantic Canada. Since the beginning of the tournament, more than $1.7 million has been donated to organizations such as Breast Cancer Action Nova Scotia, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the Mental Health Foundation of Nova Scotia.

Since 2008, Sobeys Inc., Safeway, Sobeys , IGA and the employees have supported CancerCare Manitoba’s Challenge for Life 20-kilometre walk, which raises funds and awareness for programs that provide critical and primary care for people who have been diagnosed with cancer and support for their families. Over the past decade, over $1.2 million has been raised and donated to CancerCare Manitoba Foundation for this event through Sobeys Inc.’s  financial sponsorship, in-kind donations of fresh and healthy grocery and snacks, as well as supporting 668 employees from Sobeys Safeway and IGA who have assembled a team to participate in the event over the years.

Thrifty Foods has been a strong community partner with the Canadian Cancer Society’s Tour de Rock for 21 years. The Tour de Rock team made up of 22 dedicated police officers, media personalities and special guests cycles from one end of Vancouver Island to the other, covering 1,000 kilometres and visiting more than 27 generous communities along the way to raise funds to fight childhood cancer. Thrifty Foods is proud to fuel the riders with healthy food along their route to keep them going on their journey as well as hold fundraisers in stores across the island. To date Thrifty Foods has contributes more than $510,000 to the cause.

Nationally, Sobeys Inc. supports the Grocery Foundation, providing food programs in schools from coast to coast. We continue to be an annual sponsor of the Night to Nurture Gala, selling tickets to the event and helping to raise millions of needed funding for The Grocery Foundation in Ontario and Kids Help Phone

Here are just some of the ways we've made a difference

Helping The Hungry

We extend the passion for food you see in our stores to the surrounding communities. Every year, we help feed the hungry by raising millions of dollars and donating millions of pounds of food to local food banks across Canada. Here are some examples of the programs that we have supported.

1. Thanks to the generosity of our customers and the efforts of our employees, $2.7 million in food and funds was raised across Canada during our 2018 Holiday Campaign.  This included a Sobeys Inc. corporate match of $150,000.  All in support of local food banks. 

2. Sobeys Inc. has partnered with Special Olympics Canada. Thousands of Canadians with intellectual disabilities—from two-year-olds to senior citizens—as well as their families, caregivers and coaches will now have access to nutrition guides, cooking classes and fresh, accessible food through the hundreds of local Special Olympics programs across the country.

3. Dartmouth North Community Food Centre is a project of the Dartmouth Family Centre, which has been serving the community for more than 20 years. This new facility opened in Nova Scotia in 2015 in partnership with Community Food Centres Canada to bring people together to grow, cook, share and advocate for good food. Sobeys supported the development of the site by offering reduced rent for the space, architectural services, and tendering and project management of the construction. The centre offers a wide range of programs, including cooking workshops, meals, gardening education and peer support.

4. FreshCo has partnered with the Ontario Student Nutrition Program agencies to make affordable meals possible for schoolchildren across the province. As a result, students have access to more nutritious meals. Shoppers in the program use special ID cards to receive a 5 percent reduction off FreshCo’s already low prices.

5.  We know Hunger in our communities is year-round. Sobeys and Foodland stores across Ontario encourage customers to purchase $5, $10 and $25 Food Bank Donation Bags throughout the year.  Through this program, local food banks visit our stores weekly to pick-up thousands of donated food items. 

6. In April 2018 Sobeys, Safeway and IGA stores in Calgary once again paired up with CTV Calgary for the 24th annual Friends Helping Friends Campaign for the Calgary Food Bank. The campaign encourages Calgarians to donate non-perishable food items and funds at their local store and on-line to help fill the shelves of families and individuals in crisis with nutritious food. More than $40,000 was raised in store and Sobeys Inc. contributed $1 for every donation made in store (up to $10,000) bringing the grand total raised to $50,369. To date the campaign has raised over $2.5 million to help Calgarians in need

Tour CIBC Charles-Bruneau

IGA, its retailers, suppliers, and employees at Sobeys in Quebec are proud to mark a decade of involvement with the Foundation Charles-Bruneau by donating $1.15 million, the largest amount ever collected by the banner.

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