Community Service Spotlight: Cumberland Farms, QuickChek & Wawa
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:
Cumberland Farms Inc.
Cumberland Farms, based in Framingham, Mass., kicked off its fourth annual Cups for Kids campaign, a month-long fundraiser to benefit pediatric care programs at five hospitals throughout the Northeast.
During the entire month of August, five cents from every iced coffee or Chill Zone beverage purchased at specified locations will go directly to the participating hospitals. This year’s beneficiaries include: Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center, Children's Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, Albany Medical Center, Connecticut Children's Medical Center, and Barbara Bush Hospital at Maine Medical Center.
Jiffy Mart
During the month of May, Jiffy Mart locations in Carroll County, Md., participated in a campaign to “Give Thanks. Give Hope" for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. This marked the retailer’s eighth year participating and since 2008, Jiffy Mart customers and associates have raised more than $59,000 for St. Jude.
Customers were able to purchase a pin-up for one dollar, or donate loose change. The goal at each participating store was to raise $2,500. Each Jiffy Mart store exceeded that fundraising goal, collectively donating $11,500 directly to St. Jude.
Lykins Energy Solutions
Lykins Energy Solutions (formerly Lykins Oil) in Milford, Ohio, donated most of the needed funds to build a new Clermont County Fairgrounds building. The Lykins Family Pavilion is a new entertainment pavilion at the fairgrounds. A ribbon-cutting was held July 30.
The entertainment pavilion that the fairgrounds previously used was in the middle of the midway and required using a tent that was expensive and made the area very hot due to a lack of circulation. The original pavilion, due to its popularity and location, also made the midway congested and hard to move in, according to fair board member Jerry Bridges.
The new Lykins Family Pavilion is located on the far end of the State Route 132 side of the fairgrounds. According to Bridges, this new pavilion will bring additional much-needed revenue to the fairgrounds as it will now be able to host weekly concerts.
QuickChek Corp.
Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based QuickChek Corp. has teamed up with Muscle Milk to raise funds to help post-9/11 service members and their families. The companies are holding an in-store promotion around the sale of specialty Muscle Milk bottles.
QuickChek is the only non-military retail outlet selling Muscle Milk “Hope for the Warriors” chocolate 14-ounce bottles in its 140 stores while supplies last. Muscle Milk will donate $1.20 to Hope For the Warriors for every case of the specialty protein nutrition bottles sold. Individual bottles retail for $3.69 each or two for $6.
The Muscle Milk campaign follows a recently held in-store QuickChek promotion in which customers were invited to purchase paper dog-tags for $1 at any of the company’s stores throughout New Jersey, New York’s Hudson Valley and Long Island. The promotion ran from June 6 through July 18 to support Hope For the Warriors.
QuickChek also held a charity golf outing in June to raise additional funds for Hope For the Warriors, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to enhance the quality of life for post-9/11 service members, their families, and families of the fallen who have sustained physical and psychological wounds in the line of duty. All of the funds raised will stay in local areas to help support local veterans.
Wawa Inc.
Wawa, based in Media, Pa., is partnering with Lee Memorial Blood Centers in Florida for the month of August in hopes of attracting more locals to donate blood. All donors who choose to participate receive coupons for a free Wawa Shorti Hoagie, a free 16-ounce hot beverage and a Wawa-designed T-shirt.
Because the local need for blood remains constant, donations are needed to offset summer blood shortages. Anyone eligible to donate blood can stop by one of the purple blood mobiles or visit one of the blood centers to receive the offer.
Western Refining Inc.
More than 260 Western Refining convenience stores throughout the Southwest, including Giant, Mustang, Sun Dial and Howdy’s, raised more than $524,286 during the Muscular Dystrophy Association's (MDA) summer camp mobile program.
The El Paso, Texas-based company surpassed its original 2015 fundraising goal by nearly $100,000, to help support children fighting muscular dystrophy and related life-threatening diseases that limit muscle strength and mobility.
From April 28 through June 8, the stores throughout Arizona, southwest Colorado, New Mexico and southwest Texas sold $1 and $5 pin-up mobiles that offered each customer the opportunity to help send local children affected by neuromuscular diseases to a weeklong MDA summer camp — all at no cost to their families.
This is the fourth year Western Refining has supported MDA through its mobile fundraising programs, raising more than $1 million to help accelerate urgently needed progress for people whose abilities to move are compromised including everyday abilities like walking, running, hugging, talking and even breathing.