Tag Archives: Food Bank

H-E-B gives back to San Antonio during the holiday season

By North SA Chamber Editor
Posted on by Email to a Friend

HEB helping here logo

29th Annual H-E-B Tree Lighting Celebration
On Friday, November 29th the community will once again gather together and celebrate the official start to the holiday season during the 29th Annual H-E-B Tree Lighting Celebration in Alamo Plaza.

The free community celebration will begin at 3 p.m. with face painters, balloon artists, cookie decorating stations and live musical entertainment by the following groups: United States Air Force Band of the West Trombone Quartet, San Antonio Fire Department’s Back Draft Band and Mariachi Los Galleros de San Antonio.

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As a part of the this year’s military appreciation theme, H-E-B has invited the following organizations to attend the ceremony and each decorate a life-size toy block that will sit at the base of the H-E-B Christmas Tree: Operation Home Front, Operation Finally Home, The Fisher House Foundation, Grace After Fire and the Military Child Education Coalition – who will also be on hand to read stories to children and conduct a holiday ornament craft project.

The program will begin at 6 p.m. and will include the Presentation of the Colors by the Bexar Country Sherriff Department Honor Guard, a rendition of the National Anthem by a member of the United States Air Force as well as remarks by Mayor Julián Castro and H-E-B representatives.

The 55-foot White Fir Christmas Tree from the Shasta Mountain is H-E-B’s gift to the city of San Antonio. The tree will be adorned with more than 10,000 red, white and blue lights as well as ornaments reflecting a Military Appreciation theme, with various military branches represented.

H-E-B contributes to Annual San Antonio Food Bank Food4SA Drive for 11th year in a row
For the 11th year in a row, H-E-B is responding to the San Antonio Food Bank’s Food4SA food drive challenge to help raise one million pounds of food in one month for San Antonio families in need this holiday season.

These contributions are a part of the H-E-B Food Bank Assistance Program that works year-round to raise awareness and battle hunger in Texas and Mexico. The program was founded in 1982 and is nationally recognized for the financial donations and regular monthly deliveries of food it makes to food banks in Texas and Mexico.

Last year, the company launched the H-E-B Perishable Rescue Program to provide Food Banks with more high protein foods and fresh produce. In 2012, H-E-B donated more than 25.8 million pounds of food to Texas and Mexico food banks, which represents 32.5 million meals.

From truckloads of cereal to Thanksgiving turkeys, H-E-B is pulling out all the stops this year to ensure once again that the San Antonio Food Bank meets its goal to collect one million pounds of food for Alamo City residents in just one month’s time.

As a major partner in the month-long campaign, H-E-B is also providing the Food4SA paper bags delivered by the San Antonio Express News that can be filled with nonperishable food donations and dropped off at any H-E-B location’s Food4SA collection bins throughout the month of November.

Holiday Turkey Round-Up
On November 23from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., H-E-B customers will have a chance to give back to the community by participating in the San Antonio Food Bank Holiday Turkey Round Up.

To participate, customers are asked to purchase frozen turkeys and drop them off at the H-E-B plus! located at Evans Rd. & US Hwy 281. All proceeds from the event will go towards the Food4SA campaign.

If customers cannot make a donation in the form of a turkey, they are encouraged to donate online through an interactive virtual food drive at www.safoodbank.org/food4sa.

The San Antonio Food Bank can turn $1 into 10 pounds of food, making monetary donations an extremely effective way to help fight hunger in the community.

HEB_GreatTurkeyChallengeGreat Turkey Challenge
The San Antonio Food Bank’s Great Turkey Challenge, presented by H-E-B,  is a chip-timed 5k Run/Walk held on Thanksgiving morning to help fight hunger in the San Antonio community.

The race will be held at the H-E-B Arsenal located at 646 S. Main on Thursday, Nov. 28 at 8:30 a.m. with registration starting at 7 a.m.

Every $10 generated by the race helps provide a turkey dinner to a family in need this holiday season. The race is open to all ages and will also include a pet-friendly segment. All proceeds from the event will go towards the San Antonio Food Bank Food4SA campaign.

Fees for the race are $30 to walk/run until October 31, $35 until November 26 and $40 for day-of registration. Children less than 12-years-old are always FREE. Online registration will end on November 26 at Midnight. To register for the event, visit http://safoodbank.org/thegreatturkeychallenge.org/.

H-E-B lives “Helping Here” motto

By North SA Chamber Editor
Posted on by Email to a Friend

HEB helping here logoSeptember has certainly seen H-E-B living up to its motto of “Helping Here” in the San Antonio community. Between the generosity of H-E-B customers and Partners, San Antonio has been injected with the H-E-B spirit of giving in the month of September through multiple state-wide company initiatives. At the beginning of the month, donations totaling over $540,000 were made to over 20 food banks across the state to “Help End Hunger”. H-E-B’s “Help End Hunger” campaign is unique because it is completely driven by the generosity of H-E-B and Central Market customers. The campaign encouraged customers to tear off a $1, $3, or $5 coupon to add to their final grocery bill at the check stand to benefit local food banks. In San Antonio alone, $67,000 was donated to the San Antonio food bank, all thanks to H-E-B customers that cared at the end of their trip to the grocery store.

HEB food bank pic Sept13 issue 

H-E-B presents $67,000 to the San Antonio Food Bank through the Help End Hunger campaign

Next up to the plate in the San Antonio community were the H-E-B Partners that showed their appreciation for the courageous firefighters in their neighborhood during H-E-B’s ninth annual “Helping Heroes” initiative. In remembrance of the rescue teams that risked their lives during the attacks on the World Trade Center, over 832 H-E-B Partners visited their local fire stations on September 11th to pay tribute to the local Heroes that risk their life every day for their community. A total of 59 stores in the region participated, sending Partners over to their neighborhood station to pamper their local Heroes for the day. H-E-B Partners visiting the fire stations made home-cooked breakfasts and lunches for the fire rescue teams, and cleaned their stations from top to bottom. Anyone passing by fire stations on September 11th could see Partners scrubbing fire trucks, mowing station lawns, sweeping, mopping, and grilling tasty lunches for the local firefighters. Through the H-E-B “Helping Heroes” initiative, Partners were able to show their appreciation for the daily acts of bravery performed by their local fire stations.

HEB firefighters partners pic Sept13 issue

A group of H-E-B Partners adopt a local fire station for the day during Helping Heroes on September 11th

 HEB firefighters partners pic2 Sept13 issue

H-E-B Partners lend a hand to help clean fire trucks during Helping Heroes

The end of this month highlights a special partnership of H-E-B and the community in helping to improve San Antonio children’s literacy. From September 18th to October 1st, H-E-B is hosting its “Read 3” event which includes a school book drive challenge, special reading events in all the stores, and free books given away when certain items are purchased at H-E-B.  Since the program’s inception in 2011, over 1.6 million books have been donated back to Texas communities through literacy non-profits, schools, public libraries, and Feast of Sharing dinners. In October, the H-E-B Family Literacy Workshops will begin their fall session of classes that expose children to early literacy skills and expose parents to information on how to support their children’s academic development. These Family Literacy Workshops are a product of a unique partnership of local school districts, H-E-B Partner volunteers, and local universities; the classes are free to all parent and child participants.  The school districts provide classroom space and lead teachers, as well as recruit families with young children who are not yet in formal schooling. The local universities provide students from the department of education who deliver the lessons to participants and are supervised by the district’s lead teacher. H-E-B provides the curriculum, the necessary school materials, Partners to help at each site, incentives for families that participate, and a graduation ceremony at the end of the sessions. The Read 3 program and Family Literacy Workshops are H-E-B’s way of empowering young children in the community with the gift of literacy and a passion for reading.

HEB reading pic Sept13 issue

Craig Boyan, President and C-E-O of H-E-B, reads to a group of children at a local H-E-B for the Read 3 event in September