Sharing best practices

 

As food providers, hunger relief initiatives are a natural focus for our operating companies.

Community engagement through charitable giving is particularly strong in our U.S. companies. Our employees here are engaged in supporting numerous causes in their communities and have a track record in choosing the right causes and putting programs in place to effectively benefit stakeholders. They combine financial donations and promotions with strong local partnerships and solicit donations from customers and employees on behalf of worthy causes.

In Europe, our companies carefully select causes related to our business and make significant investments in financial support and management capacity. Often this giving has been targeted towards communities outside Europe.

Our companies are able to learn from the different approaches we take in each country. We are also able to test an approach in one market before rolling it out to other operating companies. We started to formally share best practices in community engagement during our most recent CSR Coordinating Committee meeting in the fall of 2007.

Donations1

in thousands of euros 2007 2006
Stop & Shop/Giant-Landover 10,516 11,849
Giant-Carlisle 8,923 9,138
Albert Heijn 228 121
Albert/Hypernova 418 37
ICA 1,352 2,758
 
in thousands of U.S. dollars 2007 2006
Stop & Shop/Giant-Landover 14,392 14,877
Giant-Carlisle 12,212 11,473
  1. Contributions to charity, from Ahold companies, our customers, vendors and employees.
Carl Schlicker

"Building healthier communities is an integral part of the Giant corporate mission. From the stores to the corporate office, we act upon that mission every day by working with local charities and organizations to extend our reach deep into the community and lend a helping hand."

Carl Schlicker, President and CEO, Giant-Carlisle

"Giant Food Stores has taken a leadership role in supporting the brave children who are fighting daily for good health. We appreciate what Giant associates have done to help fund the life saving work of children's hospitals affiliated with Children's Miracle Network."

Brian Hazelgren, Chief Development Officer, Children's Miracle Network