Safeway Hosts Healthy Barbecue for Winners of Int'l Earth Day Contest

Safeway Inc. will host a barbecue for 84 sixth graders in Sacramento who are winners of the first annual Go Green Glogster Earth Day contest sponsored by Safeway and the Go Green Initiative.

The sixth-grade class from the Leading Edge Academy at Natomas Charter School in Sacramento was chosen as one of the top four classrooms worldwide out of participants from across the United States and 13 countries. Out of 1,525 total entries, 11 students from Leading Edge Academy were chosen as individual prize winners by a panel of judges from across the U.S.

"Safeway is pleased to have the opportunity to reward the students' research and presentations submitted in this contest," says Safeway VP of sustainability, Christy Consler. "We are proud of the outstanding work of the students and their teacher, Karisa Bibayoff."

Along with Leading Edge Academy, contest winners include Vinland Elementary School in Poulsbo, Wash. That school won a Safeway organic garden, which will be built and planted in the fall.

The contest challenged students to research the sustainability of the water, energy and food systems in their community and express their findings through videos, podcasts, blogs, music and photos compiled in a "Glog."

Keeping with the theme of sustainability, the barbecue, to be held on Monday, June 4 on the school's soccer field, will feature all-natural and organic foods from Safeway's private label collection of products, including the O Organics and Open Nature brands, as well as the Eating Right brand of better-for-you products.

Pleasanton, Calif.-based Safeway operates 1,678 stores in the United States and western Canada and had annual sales of $43.6 billion in 2011.