Nominees

Safeway Consumer Brands Career Exploration Youth Day is an annual one day event involving approximately 40 high school students from underserved communities. Safeway targets at least 3 non-profit organizations from various parts of the San Francisco Bay Area that have student outreach programs. High school students spend a full day on the Safeway corporate campus and have meaningful interactions with current Safeway employees and participate in activities that highlight various career paths with the goal of encouraging students to pursue careers in Business, Marketing, and Culinary fields. In addition to the hands on aspects, this program also has a welcome ceremony featuring our sr. consumer brands executives, including: SVP Joe Ennen, SVP Jonathan Mayes, and VP Nancy Cota and a Q & A session with Thom Brown, our GVP Retail Strategy and Communications. The program also emphasizes developing a positive self-image with motivational speakers as well as teaching the youth about proper eating habits and nutrition. This program is one of the newest additions to Safeway’s various community outreach programs and has been successfully executed at Safeway for the last two years.

Career Exploration Youth Day takes place right here on our corporate campus. It requires approximately 50 staff members to donate their time, resulting in the generation of 300 volunteer hours. Additionally Safeway closes its R&D culinary kitchen and dedicates that day to teaching the youth with hands on food related experiences. The Safeway Foundation contributed $1,000 scholarships to each of the 3 organizations who participated in Youth Day.

The objective of Consumer Brands Career Exploration Youth Day is to partner with various non-profit organizations who target high school youth in underserved communities to expose them to the various career opportunities within the Safeway Consumer Brands Organization, by inviting them to spend the day at the corporate office and participate in workshops and activities while strengthening our continued commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility. With these experiences the students have an opportunity to open their minds in understanding with education, hardworking attitude, and a positive approach they can have a professional career regardless of the student’s life challenges.

The Consumer Brands Youth Day was a great success towards the CSR goals for the Consumer Brands team. In the first year, volunteers contributed over 600community service hours to the program. In year 2, the volunteers contributed over 300 hours to the program. Interested students were given the opportunity to apply for clerk jobs at their neighboring stores. So far 2, students have been offered positions in the past year. At least 4 other students have decided to enroll in marketing classes and consider it as a career option.

"Reaching out to the next generation and exposing them to broader opportunities is one of the most meaningful ways we can impact our community. Consumer Brands Career Exploration Youth Day is packed with a full, enriching agenda. Our goal is to keep Career Exploration Youth Day fun and engaging while exposing youths to career paths they might not have even been aware of such as marketing, advertising, design, the art and science of food and sales." Joe Ennen, SVP Consumer Brands

On behalf of the Old Path Church Youth Group in Vallejo, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Safeway for hosting the Consumer Brands Youth Day. The event was inspiring and encouraging to all of our youth that attended. Thank you for your invitation to participate. Your team did an exceptional job putting everything together. Our youth came back excited and uplifted from the various workshops and testimonies offered by your staff. Each of them was particularly impressed with the warm attitudes and hospitality of the volunteers. In my opinion, Safeway hit a home run with this event. According to many of the youth, this event was the life changing milestone that gave them direction and a greater sense hope for their futures. I am overwhelmed that a fortune 500 company like Safeway would make such a large investment in the lives of youth in underserved communities.

Safeway Consumer Brands Career Exploration Youth Day is an annual event involving approximately 40 high school students from underserved communities. Safeway targets three non-profit organizations from various parts of the San Francisco Bay Area that have student outreach programs. High school students spend a day on the Safeway corporate campus and have meaningful interactions with current Safeway employees and participate in activities that highlight various career paths with the goal of encouraging students to pursue careers in Business, Marketing, and Culinary fields. In addition to the hands on aspects, this program also has a welcome ceremony featuring our sr. consumer brands executives, including: SVP Joe Ennen, SVP Jonathan Mayes, and VP Nancy Cota and a Q & A session with Thom Brown, our GVP Retail Strategy and Communications. The program also emphasizes developing a positive self-image with motivational speakers as well as teaching the youth about proper eating habits and nutrition.