Now in its second year, the 2009 Safeway Foundation's Empowerment Grants are awarded to Easter Seals affiliates across the country whose innovative programming truly makes a difference in the lives of people with disabilities, whether through autism services, employment support, inclusive child care, early intervention, medical rehabilitation or respite. The fact is, while society has made substantial progress in leveling the playing field, people with disabilities and their families still face significant barriers when it comes to living independently, securing employment, accessing quality, affordable health care, finding opportunities for recreation and playing an active role in their communities.

"The Safeway Foundation's grant supports the expansion of critical Easter Seals local programs and helps us reach more families living with autism and other disabilities who desperately need access to services that can positively impact their lives," said Gerard P. Mattimore, Chair of the Board of Directors, Easter Seals. "And more than this, Safeway has a long-standing commitment to hiring people with disabilities and making their stores accessible for employees and customers alike."

This year's 2009 Safeway Foundation's Empowerment grantees are:

    --  From Safeway's Dominick's Division in the Chicagoland area, Easter Seals
        Joliet for its Family Resource Center;
    --  In Safeway's Tom Thumb Division, Easter Seals North Texas for its Youth
        Employment Skills Camp;
    --  Out of Safeway's Eastern Division, Easter Seals Greater
        Washington-Baltimore Region to expand its Child Development Center and
        Easter Seals Delaware and Maryland's Eastern Shore to grow its Early
        Intervention Services;
    --  From Safeway's Seattle Division, Easter Seals Northern Rocky Mountain's
        Autism Intervention Training Program in Idaho and Washington; and,
        Easter Seals Washington's Safeway Assistive Technology Project and
        Safeway Autism Early Intervention Project;
    --  Through Safeway's VONS Division, Easter Seals Southern Nevada for its
        Vons Transition Program and Easter Seals Southern California for its
        WorkFirst Programs for Employment  and Social Skills;

    --  In Safeway's Northern California Division, Easter Seals Central
        California for its Autism Parent Training Program in Monterey; Easter
        Seals Bay Area for both its Safeway Autism Initiative and Safeway Parent
        Empowerment Grant; and, Easter Seals Hawaii for its Safeway Teen
        Transition Program.

About the Collaboration

This past April, for the fourth year, Safeway dedicated the entire month to in-store fundraising to support Easter Seals services for people with autism and other disabilities. During the campaign, Safeway asked customers at all of its 1,700 Safeway stores in North America -- Vons, Tom Thumb, Dominick's, Randall's, Genuardi's, Carrs and Pavilions -- if they wanted to contribute a dollar or more at checkout to support people with disabilities.

"2009 was a record-breaking year for Safeway," added Mattimore. "The generosity of thousands of Safeway customers and employees is overwhelming. In just five weeks time, the campaign raised more than $8.8 million for Easter Seals and helped Safeway exceed the $100 million mark in overall contributions to our organization, the first of our corporate partners to do so."

About Safeway

Safeway Inc. is a Fortune 50 company and one of the largest food and drug retailers in North America. The company operates 1,739 stores in the United States and Canada and had annual sales of $44.1 billion in 2008. The company's common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SWY. www.safeway.com.

About Easter Seals

Easter Seals is the leading non-profit provider of services for individuals with autism, developmental disabilities, physical disabilities and other special needs. For more than 90 years, we have been offering help and hope to children and adults living with disabilities, and to the families who love them. Through therapy, training, education and support services, Easter Seals creates life-changing solutions so that people with disabilities can live, learn, work and play. Support children and adults with disabilities at www.easterseals.com.

SOURCE Easter Seals

http://www.easterseals.com

SOURCE: Safeway Inc.

Safeway Inc. 
Christiane Pelz, 925-467-3832

"It is gratifying to see our fundraising dollars bear fruit," said Larree Renda, Safeway Executive Vice President, Chief Strategist and Administrative Officer and Chair of the Safeway Foundation. "We have teamed up with some of North America's premier cancer centers and we are beginning to see some encouraging results."

The first project, the I-SPY TRIAL (Investigation of Serial Studies to Predict Your Therapeutic Response with Imaging And moLecular Analysis) is managed by the Biomarkers Consortium in conjunction with the National Cancer Institute. The Consortium is a unique public-private partnership led by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health that includes the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and a large number of partners from major pharmaceutical companies, leading academic medical centers, non-profit and patient advocacy groups. Scientists from NCI, FDA, and major cancer research centers helped develop and will participate in the conduct of the trial. In the course of the trial, women with locally advanced breast cancer will be given promising drugs in development that are individually targeted to the biology of each woman's tumor. Researchers will use data from one set of patients' treatment to treat other patients, and thus more quickly eliminate ineffective treatments and drugs. In addition, the I-SPY trial will test the concept of personalized medicine by leveraging the molecular tools that have been developed over the last decade with the potential to identify and test new biomarkers as well.

The second Safeway Foundation-funded research initiative comes from the University of California, which is launching an unprecedented statewide collaboration for breast cancer patients with the goal of revolutionizing the course of their care by designing and testing new approaches to research, technology and health care delivery. The project, the ATHENA Breast Health Network, will initially involve 150,000 women throughout California who will be screened for breast cancer and followed for years to come through the five UC medical centers. The Safeway Foundation provided a $4.8 million grant, which will be coupled with a $5.3 million grant from the University of California.

The medical centers involved in this large-scale initiative are UC San Francisco who will serve as the host campus, UC Davis, UC Los Angeles, UC San Diego, and UC Irvine. Also participating in the collaboration are the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, the Northern California Cancer Center, Quantum Leap Healthcare Collaborative, the National Cancer Institute's BIG Health Consortium, and the Center for Medical Technology Policy.

Last year Safeway joined with UCSF to enable the nationwide launch of BreastCancerTrials.org, the nation's only online clinical trial matching service dedicated exclusively to breast cancer. Cancer patients, survivors and those who are at risk now have a free, easy-to-use resource that custom matches them to clinical trials specifically targeted to their personal health profiles. Using part of a $2 million grant from Safeway and The Safeway Foundation, the University of California at San Francisco's Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center developed BreastCancerTrials.org which is now operated as a program of QuantumLeap Healthcare Collaborative, a non-profit corporation. BreastCancerTrials.org provides patient-friendly descriptions and information for over 160 trials now underway at more than 1,500 medical facilities across the country. During October, Safeway will publish messaging about BreastCancerTrials.org on its paper grocery bags and through brochures at the company's pharmacies to raise awareness of this important service.

Safeway has raised nearly $60 million for breast cancer research since 2001. During October, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the company will add significantly to that number through a range of additional fundraising programs at its local stores. The funds are donated to unique and promising research projects at various research facilities throughout North America, including:

-- Arizona: Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, The University of Arizona, Tucson

-- California: The Carol Franc Buck Breast Cancer Center at the University of California San Francisco, The University of California at Davis, Irvine and San Diego, The Revlon Women's Cancer Research Program at UCLA, University of Southern California

-- Canada: The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation

-- Colorado: The Anschutz Breast Cancer Unit at the University of Colorado, The Susan G. Komen Foundation

-- Illinois: The Lurie Breast Cancer Unit at Northwestern University

-- Maryland: The Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University

-- Oregon: Providence Cancer Center

-- Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania

-- Texas: The Nellie B. Connally Breast Cancer Center at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

-- Washington: The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center

Cancer research is just one of the many important causes that the company supports each year. Safeway contributes to a broad range of charitable and community programs and in 2008 donated more than $248 million to education, hunger relief, health and human services and programs focused on assisting people with disabilities.

The company operates stores under the Safeway, Vons, Pavilions, Tom Thumb, Randalls, Dominick's, Genuardi's, Carrs and Pak 'N Save banners.

ABOUT SAFEWAY www.Safeway.com

Safeway Inc. is a Fortune 50 company and one of the largest food and drug retailers in North America, based on sales. The company operates 1,739 stores in the United States and western Canada and had annual sales of $44.1 billion in 2008. The company's common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SWY.

SOURCE: Safeway Inc.

Safeway Inc. 
Teena Massingill, 925-467-3810 
Teena.Massingill@Safeway.com