Smart & Final Launches Fundraising Campaign

Smart & Final is kicking off a fundraising campaign on March 3 at all 254 of its locations to support the Smart & Final Charitable Foundation. The fundraiser will benefit thousands of local organizations in California, Arizona and Nevada that support the foundation’s five pillars of focus: health and wellness, education, hunger relief, team sports and youth development, and disaster relief.

Now through March 16, customers can donate at any Smart & Final store, with 100% of the funds to be distributed by the Smart & Final Charitable Foundation to nonprofits in local communities. The Give $5, Save $5 program provides customers who donate at least $5 with a $5-off $25 coupon good for their next in-store purchase at any Smart & Final location March 17-23.

“The Smart & Final Charitable Foundation has worked tirelessly to support the needs of our communities and the nonprofits that serve them during an incredibly challenging year,” said Tinamarie Squieri, the foundation's manager. “Our team has worked passionately to support the needs of our longtime partner organizations during this time. We are very proud of the generosity of our associates and customers who supported our record-breaking fundraising initiatives in support of this time of unprecedented need.”

Smart & Final Charitable Foundation’s in-store fundraiser for Olive Crest, an organization dedicated to preventing child abuse, raised $577,000, and a similar campaign for the City of Hope Kids for Hope program, which funds research and treatment of childhood cancers, raised $500,000.

Smart & Final also brought back its popular PastaThon fundraiser in early December. With every $10 donated by shoppers at checkout, Smart & Final and Barilla provided pasta, sauce, forks, bowls and to-go containers to Caterina’s Club, a nonprofit that feeds 25,000 at-risk children every week. The 10th annual KFI PastaThon resulted in a 78% increase in donations to Caterina's Club.

In addition, early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, Smart & Final and its foundation created Project Feed First Responders to ensure that first responders and medical workers had the food and supplies they needed. The program included monetary and product donations, including masks and gloves, and stocking pantries to help feed 300 firefighters.

Thanks to the contributions of customers, associates and vendor partners, in 2020, the charitable foundation raised almost $2 million to support nearly 1,500 causes.

Commerce, California-based Smart & Final operates 254 locations, including larger-format stores under the Smart & Final Extra! banner that combine a warehouse-store format with traditional grocery offerings. All of the chain’s stores sell groceries and household essentials in both bulk and individual sizes without a membership fee. The company is No. 57 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer's list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.