Recently at a Maple Valley City Council hearing, a charge was levied against Fred Meyer Stores by another member of the community. The charge was that Fred Meyer does not contribute to the community and is not involved.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

We contribute more than $4 million in cash and an additional $4 million in food to our communities each year in our four-state market (Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington). We do more for our communities than any of our competitors, hands down. The Maple Valley store will be an active part of this network of time, money and product donations.

Here’s what Fred Meyer has done in Maple Valley over the last few years:

• Platinum member of the Chamber;

• Sponsor of the Maple Valley Rotary fundraiser at $10,000 and

• Sponsor of Maple Valley Days.

Here’s what Fred Meyer will do in Maple Valley once the store is open.

In all our communities, once the store opens, each school in the area will get a donation of between $2500 and $5000 each year to be distributed as the schools see fit.

We have an active employee volunteer program in each store. One great example is that our stores each have American Cancer Society Relay for Life team and combined Fred Meyer employees raise more than $200,000 each year.

We donate more than 2 million meals in Washington state from our stores through our perishable donations program – meat, dairy and some produce. The Maple Valley store will be part of that and the food will go to a food bank in Maple Valley.

Our coin boxes raise more than $550,000 a year and go to non-profits in the communities where our stores do business. Maple Valley will part of that program.

Non-profits such as Boy Scouts, Girls Scouts and veteran’s groups use our doorways to raise more than $2 million each year.

The Fred Meyer Fund is funded by our employees’ generous donations and we make more than $1 million in grants from that fund each year, in the communities where we have stores and where our customers and employees live.

We are very aware that if our communities are not strong, then our business will not be strong. We take our responsibility to our communities very seriously and we show it with cash, product and employee volunteer time. We are thrilled to be coming to Maple Valley and cannot wait to start serving your community!

Melinda Merrill

Director, Public Affairs

Fred Meyer Stores