Hy-Vee thinks pink with donation to breast cancer awareness

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa A Midwestern retail chain has marked National Breast Cancer Awareness Month with a donation to fight the disease.

Hy-Vee announced that it had donated $135,000 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure at the end of the organization’s Komen Des Moines Race for the Cure, which took place in Des Moines, Iowa, on Oct. 24. The chain will also donate $25,000 to the National Breast Cancer Foundation on Nov. 22 at halftime during the game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Hy-Vee is title sponsor of the Chiefs’ Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign.

“Our stores went all out this year for the fight against breast cancer,” Hy-Vee assistant VP media relations Ruth Comer said in a statement. “It’s an issue that affects many of our employees and customers on a very personal level, and that personal connection was evident in many of the displays created and events held throughout the month.”

The donations come from proceeds from a special pink-themed advertisement and the sale of pink Hy-Vee reusable shopping bags featuring a breast cancer message. The chain’s 227 stores in eight states sponsored a series of events throughout October to mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month, including sale of pink “Cookies for Komen” sold at Des Moines stores and participation of store employees in the Race for the Cure, for which Hy-Vee stores donated fruit and worked with General Mills to supply Yoplait yogurt.