Retail & Celebrity Charity News Week of December 15-21

Whole Foods Donates To Hunger Relief

Publicly traded healthy grocery store Whole Foods Market has donated almost $1 million worth of food to Feeding America, a charitable hunger relief organization. Feeding America, which has about 200 member food banks and food-rescue organizations in the United States and Puerto Rico. Whole Foods Market’s donation is nearly 200,000 pounds of food that will contribute to feeding poor communities and help form about 50,000 meals.

Save the Children Ramps Up Zimbabwe Operation

The inflation crisis and political unrest in the African nation of Zimbabwe has driven Save the Children to step up its local operation to enhance food and healthcare programs. According to the nonprofit, one-third of children in Zimbabwe are malnourished and the situation is getting worse. Upon release in early December, the nonprofit anticipated that roughly half of the nation’s popoulation would need food simply to survive the year. Since then, the nation has been stricken by a Cholera outbreak.

Save the Children is providing food assistance to 200,000 people and enabling families to prepare for the future by distributing seed, small livestock and helping to create vegetable gardens. According to Save the Children 10% of children in the nation die by the age of five, because of hunger, healthcare and sanitation issues.

Kohl’s, Forever 21, Acquire Mervyns Locations

Kohl’s Corporation and Forever 21 have secured a joint bid in an auction of leaseholds for Mervyns sites that will see the two acquire 46 locations for about $6.25 million. Kohl’s will take on 31 and Forever 21 will assume 15, pending approval from the court overseeing Mervyns bankruptcy proceedings. In a company statement, Kohl’s Department Stores President and CEO Kevin Mansell said: “We will continue to be opportunistic and prudent in our discussions with the owners of select Mervyns real estate as we continue to position Kohl’s to grow market share.” In 2009, the company plans to open about 50 stores, including most of the 31 former Mervyns’ locations.

Tesco Unveils U.K. Energy Plans

British grocery giant Tesco announced plans to create energy on site at 50 of its United Kingdom stores. The move is part of its aim slash its carbon footprint by 50% by 2020. The plan involves uses a technology called Combined Heat and Power, which functions by taking the heat created by electricity and shifting it to mini-power stations that would heat the stores. The technology will cut each store’s carbon emissions by up to 10%, which across 50 stores will equal the energy consumed by five stores. The investment required to build the mini stations will be paid for in an estimated eight years. This comes after Tesco built a plant at its Colney Hatch store that on biofuels, including UK-grown vegetable oil.