Community Service Spotlight: Hess, United Family & Corner Store

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:

Aloha Petroleum Ltd.

Aloha Petroleum recently donated $12,741.64 to the Hawaii State Chapter of the American Red Cross to aid in Typhoon Haiyan disaster relief and recovery efforts in the Philippines. Half of the funds were collected over a two-month period via Aloha Petroleum’s statewide customer collection canister program; the remaining half was matched by the retailer. 
 
To date, the Red Cross has raised $76 million for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan, which damaged houses, crops and the country’s water supply, in addition to people’s livelihoods. 

CST Brands Inc. 

CST Brands and its CEO Kim Bowers recently hosted an appearance by 8-year-old Reagan Imhoff, a goodwill ambassador for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) touring the country to speak at events, conferences and media appearances.

Imhoff, who uses a power wheelchair because of her Type II spinal muscular atrophy muscular dystrophy, helped solicit donations from customers at a San Antonio Corner Store owned and operated by CST. That store raised more than $9,000 last year for the MDA, making it one of the top three fundraising stores in the San Antonio market area.

CST is one of MDA’s biggest sponsors through its annual Shamrock campaign. Last year, the chain's Corner Stores raised a record $2.3 million via the sale of $1 and $5 paper shamrocks. The company’s current campaign began March 4 and runs through the end of the month.

Hess Corp. 

Hess recently gave Marietta College in southeast Ohio a $15,000 grant to support the school’s Department of Petroleum Engineering & Geology. The Edwy R. Brown Department of Petroleum Engineering & Geology is the 10th largest petroleum engineering program in the United States and the only program at a small, liberal arts college. 

Sheetz Inc.

Thanks to Sheetz, some of the coolers from an old gas station building have gone to Barbour County Schools in West Virginia and will be used to revive a meat program at the county technical center, a program that students wanted back.

After doing a survey, the school system found there were more than 150 students interested in the meat program, so it is trying to get it off the ground again “as a viable option for our kids for employment purposes," according to Superintendent Dr. Joseph Super. The start of the program is still a ways off, but Sheetz brought that day a bit closer, he said.

The United Family

For the third year in a row, United Family stores will help serve the hungry in their local Texas communities by donating more than 30,000 pounds of apples to five food banks. The donation is part of the company’s continued participation in the Take a Bite Out of Hunger program sponsored by FirstFruits Marketing of Washington. The campaign helps feed the underserved while bringing attention to the problem of food insecurity in the United States. 
 
United has provided almost 115,000 pounds of apples to food banks to date.