Larree M. Renda

Chair, The Safeway Foundation
Executive Vice President, Chief Strategist and Administrative Officer, Safeway Inc

Larree Renda
As Chair of the Safeway Foundation, created in 2002, Larree Renda is a formidable champion for Easterseals.

Renda began her career at Safeway when she was 16. She’s moved through Safeway’s retail ranks and blazed a path as the youngest store manager, district manager, and retail operations manager in Safeway’s 80-plus-year history. She was the first and youngest woman promoted to Senior Vice President and then to Executive Vice President in 1999. In 2001 and 2002, she was voted one of the “50 Most Influential Women in Business” by Fortune Magazine.

As Chair of The Safeway Foundation, she says, “When we look at what causes to support, we look at what impacts our customers and our employees in a major way. That’s how we chose hunger relief, education, health and human services and people with disabilities as our areas of focus.” Safeway’s more than 1,700 stores and over 200,000 employees across the United States and Canada actively support four major causes in-store, including prostate and breast cancer research, the Muscular Dystrophy Association and Easterseals.

One of the ways Safeway communicates its charitable activities to employees is through a state of the art satellite broadcast system, which allows Renda’s team to share with thousands of employees. As she explains, “Our responsibility is to expose and educate our associates about our charitable activities and our satellite broadcasts are an effective way to get them involved.” Safeway’s programs teach and reward employees for volunteering in their communities, and everyone benefits. “We’re able to give a lot, and we get a lot back.”

She’s quick to point out that Safeway carefully evaluates its charitable partners. “One of the reasons we’ve been with Easterseals all these years is because the money we raise stays in local communities. And, Easterseals is the best in its class at doing things efficiently so that the dollars raised go directly to clients served by the organization.”

Safeway’s April 2011 in-store program gave customers the chance to make a check-out donation to Easterseals, raising over $7.5 million in the United States and Canada, and exposing millions of consumers to Easterseals’ mission. Safeway employees responded. Renda says, “It was overwhelming. Everyone embraced it and we expect to do more next year. We also received such great support from local Easterseals affiliates who assisted us in our fundraising efforts.”

While Safeway’s commitment to Easterseals is corporate, Renda also had a personal experience. When her son was born with cerebral palsy, it was Easterseals’ therapists who offered answers, therapy services, and support. Most importantly, they offered hope. Today, he’s a left-handed pitcher for the University of Portland.

Safeway has raised more than $121 million for Easterseals. Renda's hope is that Easterseals can touch many more individuals and families by both expanding the life-changing services offered to even more children and adults with disabilities as well as spreading knowledge about these services so that no one in need goes unassisted.

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