Ronald McDonald House Light the House

Save-On-Foods is proud to support Ronald McDonald Houses across western Canada each year with our Light the House campaign. To date, this campaign has raised almost $600,000 to help families stay together when their children are sick.

Save-On-Foods also support the British Columbia and Yukon Ronald McDonald House by providing families with the ability to stay near kids needing treatment at BC Children’s Hospital. This not only reduces the financial impact that a hospital stay might otherwise have on a family, it lets families stay together and close by. It also provides convenient services like snacks and meals to make things a little simpler.

Save-On-Foods is proud to contribute as the Pantry Sponsor, donating weekly deliveries to help supplement groceries for families. These items include frozen meals, nutritious snacks to take to appointments, and staples like pasta, rice, cereal, and spices.

BC Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation

We’re passionate about locally grown food and healthy eating! Save-On-Foods has been a long-time partner of the BC School Fruit and Vegetable and Milk program. With our teamwork, these programs reach over half a million BC students a year, who receive healthy snacks like fresh fruits, vegetables, and milk in their classrooms.
Not only does this provide healthy snacks, it spreads the word to teachers and students around the province about BC’s agriculture and healthy eating.

* image courtesy BC Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation

Children’s Hospitals

For decades, Save-On-Foods has supported children’s hospitals in B.C. and Alberta, and has donated more than $30 million on behalf of generous team members, customers and supplier partners in the process.

Since Save-On-Foods expanded into Saskatchewan and Manitoba, the company has formed new partnerships with the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital Foundation in Saskatoon, Sask., and the Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba in Winnipeg.

In more than 30 years of fundraising for children’s hospitals, the company has donated more than $30 million.

Three times a year, Save-On-Foods stores participate in a two-week Round Up for Kids campaign, where customers can round up their bill to the nearest dollar and donate the difference to the children’s hospital in their community. In the latest Round Up for Kids, from March 14-27, 2019, Save- On-Foods raised $388,259—the highest two-week total ever.

In addition to store-driven fundraisers, Save-On-Foods participates in Jeans Day, where those who donate to BC Children’s Hospital can dress casually on a Thursday, and Miracle Weekend, the annual telethon for BC Children’s Hospital that celebrates team members’ contributions to child health throughout the year.

Supporting School Nutrition Programs

The Toonies for Tummies campaign sees retailers across Canada participate in fundraising and donation matching for local school nutrition programs, through the Breakfast Club of Canada in Western Canada.

Each year our customers amaze us with their generosity, making 2024 the highest donated total since we began in 2017! To date our customer donations plus matching funds have contributed $1,875,000 to this program where 100% of the proceeds raised go to local schools.

Emergency Response and Disaster Relief

Flooding and the wildfire season in Canada continues to represent the devastating impacts of climate change in our communities. Access to food, water, and supplies during an emergency is critical. Over the past decade, Save-on-Foods has grown its capacity and expertise in emergency response and disaster relief and is proud of our efforts and collaboration with governments, NGOs, and other organizations to ensure people have what they need to best manage the situation and recover.

When an emergency happens, we first and foremost focus on caring for the communities that are directly affected. During wildfire season, Save-On-Foods acts as a primary food and distribution partner for disaster relief efforts in British Columbia and in other provinces when needed.

Along with various sectors, levels of government and community leaders, some of the work we are committed to include:

• Immediate triage support, followed by long-term support and response efforts to help establish stability and healthy communities
• Food and supplies support to first responders
• Food and supplies support to displaced families and neighbors through food banks and other relief agencies, sometimes as a distribution partner and other times mobilizing fundraising efforts for this important work /li>

Bringing nutrition to kids all year

I Can for Kids
We are passionate about supporting child health, nutrition, and contributing to our communities. For those reasons, Save-On-Foods was I Can for Kids’ first partner 10 years ago. In 2015 then-11-year-old Sutton Garner learned that thousands of children go hungry over the summer months and wanted to do something to help; this became I Can for Kids.

I Can for Kids started by providing grocery packs over the summer months to food-insecure families who would have otherwise had access to food nutrition programs through the school year, but the summer left a gap in support. The program has since evolved to target food insecurity by empowering families with choice, and the ability to shop for themselves with donated funds.

Adam’s Apples Foundation

Adam’s Apples Foundation (AAF) was created to honour the legacy of Adam Hryhorchuk, who passed away from an accidental drug overdose at 22.

Adam struggled with mental health and substance use issues as a teen. At the same time, he had a very special quality: he was genuinely interested in every person he met. Adam gave a hand-up to kids who weren’t in sync with the crowd — he understood the impact of isolation.

What began in 2016 with a single bowl of apples strategically placed in a school to offer students a healthy snack, quickly evolved to become a key gathering place for students to connect, socialize and converse.

This ‘seed’ grew into a comprehensive programming that includes mental health literacy curriculum, developed in partnership with the University of British Columbia, to help students gain mental health knowledge and skills in peer support.

Today, Adam’s Apples Foundation operates in 27 schools and community centres in Burnaby, Delta, Richmond, Surrey, and Vancouver, with demand to expand the program throughout BC.

Since 2019, Save-On-Foods has partnered with AAF to provide 100,000 apples — enough apples for one year for ALL schools.

Support for Western Canadian Food Banks

Since Share It Forward’s beginning in 2018, Save-On-Foods has raised over $2M by donating proceeds from Western Family products sold online or in-store during the May campaign.