Donation supports important Bay Area health and education initiatives
Modesto, Calif.— Lucky Stores donates 100 tons of compost to school and community gardens to support key health and education initiatives in the Bay Area. This high-quality compost is made from the fresh waste generated in its stores and then back-hauled to a production facility in the Central Valley and made into compost. Lucky packages and stocks the compost in stores and sells to consumers—a practice the company has been conducting since May 1997.
“All of the fresh food that we can no longer sell in our stores is rescued. Consumable products are given to local Feeding America food banks, and our fresh waste is made into high-quality compost,” explains Steve Junqueiro, president and chief operating officer. “Composting has been part of our business operation for years, but today we’re happy to share the product of this work with our communities.”
Understanding the importance of health education and community access to a variety of healthy foods, Lucky has partnered with the following organizations:
- Burnett Middle School in San Jose in support of the school’s garden—a site also supported by Silicon Valley HealthCorps (SVHC).
- Oakland Unified School District’s Castlemont High School in support of the school’s new organic garden.
- Collective Roots in East Palo Alto works to educate and engage youth and communities in food system change through sustainable programs that impact health, education, and the environment. (also supported by SVHC)
- Contra Costa Master Growers community garden in Walnut Creek, which donates all the food that is grown to the Contra Costa Food Bank, Monument Crisis Center and Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen.
- Sacramento High School’s Edible Garden provides a transformative experience in food education through an integrated curriculum across three main activities: a school garden, a kitchen classroom, and a student-run cafeteria.
In addition, Lucky has committed 20 tons of compost to school and community gardens in San Francisco through a partnership with Earth Day San Francisco. This compost will be made available to groups at the Daly City Lucky store on Saturday, April 13 from 11 am until the compost is gone.
“The Castlemont Farm project will empower Castlemont’s Sustainable Urban Design Academy students to make a tangible, positive impact on the health and food security of their community,” explained Park Guthrie, Garden-Education Specialist for Oakland Unified School District. “Students will learn about sustainable agriculture, systems theory, ecology, and soil science while developing green job skills as they help grow significant amounts of fresh healthy produce for their community. Such innovative and engaging projects are only possible with the support of partners like Lucky Supermarkets.”
Appropriate handling of the company’s waste is a priority to the company. Last year alone Save Mart, Lucky and FoodMaxx stores:
- Rescued 1.95 million pounds of food to local food banks
- Recycled 1.2 million pounds of plastic
- Recycled 45,000 tons of cardboard
- Composted 22,669 tons of fresh waste
- Sold 4,346,910 reusable bags
Save Mart Supermarkets, a California corporation, owns and operates 226 stores in Northern California and Northern Nevada under the Save Mart, S-Mart Foods, Lucky, Maxx Value Foods, and FoodMaxx banners. For more information on the stores of Save Mart Supermarkets, please visit www.SaveMart.com, www.LuckySupermarkets.com, and www.FoodMaxx.com