Why It Matters
Our communities are all about how we come together as partners to make progress, tackle shared challenges and ensure everyone can prosper. Providing access to healthy and affordable food, nutrition, education and early interventions in child and youth mental health means healthier tomorrows for more Canadians.
Fiscal 2025 Performance Highlight
More than $25 million donated to support healthy bodies and minds in our communities (~$7.3 million in corporate donations and ~$17.8 million raised)
Our Approach
Our commitment to being community engaged is embedded in our core values.
Community investment is a major area of focus for our business and our teams—not only because we care about the places where we live and work but also because it delivers on our business strategy by inspiring customers and teammates.
Community consultation and input forms are an integral part of how we plan for and administer our community investment program. We offer an online Community Action Fund application form for an equitable and consistent approach for reviewing community donation requests.
Building on Our Pillars
Our Community Investment Strategy fosters Healthier Tomorrows for Canadians through our work in two key pillars:
Nourishing Healthy Bodies
Removing barriers to access healthy and affordable food
Nurturing Healthy Minds
Ensuring more children and youth receive the mental health support they need at an early stage
These pillars are also fully integrated with our DE&I Strategy, ensuring the ways we foster healthy bodies and minds are also focused on supporting Black, Indigenous and other under-represented communities. This framework consists of three streams of giving, totalling more than $25 million in funds raised and donated in fiscal 2025:
$19 million
through strategic partnerships and initiatives (over $10,000)
More than $700,000
in regional donations through our Community Action Fund and a streamlined online application process ($1,000-$10,000)
$1.67 million
in local donations from individual stores (typically under $1,000 each)
Partnering for Greater Impact
Key strategic partnerships include Family of Support: Child & Youth Mental Health Initiative. Our inaugural partnership with The Sobey Foundation and Canada’s Children’s Hospital Foundations was launched in 2020. To date, the partnership has raised more than $21 million to support 15 mental health programs across Canada focused on increasing access to early-intervention mental health support for children and families. Other partners include more than 400 local food banks and meal programs, Special Olympics Canada, The Grocery Foundation and Kids Help Phone.
Meeting Our Commitments
In fiscal 2025 we achieved our commitment to ensure that 10% of our annual community investment donations supported Black-led and Indigenous-led or informed organizations. Our Healthier Tomorrows Individual Giving Program is a voluntary program empowering teammates to donate directly from their paycheques to support their choice of more than 30 charities across Canada, with corporate matching opportunities throughout the year. We will continue to explore opportunities for new community investment partnerships and ways to build on our commitment.
Highlights
Partnership With Kids Help Phone
We partnered with Kids Help Phone (KHP) through a five-year, $1.25-million commitment to support two vital community-based mental health programs, developed with Black and Indigenous leaders.
Since January 2020, KHP has supported youth across Canada through nearly 21.5 million interactions. In 2024 alone, KHP provided assistance 4.3 million times – over 12,000 interactions every single day. With support from Sobeys, KHP launched two key initiatives to broaden accessibility and meaningful engagements for equity-deserving communities.
Finding Hope: Kids Help Phone’s Action Plan for Supporting First Nations, Inuit and Métis Young People introduced specialized programs and service features for Indigenous youth, who now make up 10% of KHP’s service users (compared to 5% of Canada’s population). RiseUp: Kids Help Phone’s Action Plan for Supporting Black Youth expanded programs and services tailored to African, Caribbean and Black youth, who now represent 8% of KHP’s service users (compared to 4% of Canada’s population).
Nurturing Healthy Bodies
In fiscal 2025, our teams continued to support access to healthy and affordable food for people in their communities. Thanks to the generosity of our customers and teammates, our 2024 Holiday Food Bank Fundraiser raised and donated over $7.2 million in food and funds in support of more than 400 food banks across the country. In Quebec, $2.23 million was raised in support of provincial food networks. In addition to raising funds and sharing food, our teams also foster knowledge about healthy eating and living. For example, teammates at IGA continue to work with La Tablée des Chefs to empower thousands of young people through schools and youth community centres. This program has now expanded outside Quebec. As well, through our ongoing partnership, Special Olympics Canada continues to provide nutrition sessions specifically designed for athletes with intellectual disabilities.
Supporting Healthy Bodies and Healthy Minds in Local Communities
We support Canadian communities through our Community Action Fund, including ongoing support for the Canadian Red Cross and local community responses to natural disasters.
Helping Kids Access Mental Health Services
Launched in 2020, the Family of Support: Child and Youth Mental Health Initiative helps kids from coast to coast access early mental health support. Now in its fifth year, our partnership with The Sobey Foundation and Canada’s Children’s Hospital Foundations was formed in response to the growing need for early interventions. Between 2020 and 2023, approximately 60,000 kids were assessed through programs supported by the partnership. Nearly 13,000 people have been trained to provide better care and support for children and youth experiencing mental health challenges. Hospitals across the country have created new spaces designed to provide better mental health care, reaching more than 93,000 children and families. The initiative’s 2024 Impact Report will be released in September 2025. To date, the partnership has raised and donated more than $21 million to support early interventions in child and youth mental health.
Champions
We are proud of our partnership with the Sobey Foundation and Empire Company Limited and inspired by the generosity that we see from team members, customers and suppliers from coast to coast. To date, Family of Support has raised and donated more than $21 million. These funds have supported initiatives focused on early intervention, prevention, research and innovation; enabled the development of much-needed education and resource materials; and helped create programs and spaces designed to ensure that children and youth can get the mental health care they need where they need it.”
Adam Starkman, President & CEO, Canada’s Children’s Hospital Foundations
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We’re also focused on nurturing healthy bodies and minds through our focus on health, safety and wellness and commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.
As a family nurturing families, we want to ensure Canadians are taken care of today, tomorrow, and in the future. By doing OurPartTM for the environment, we hope to inspire our customers to do theirs. Every step we take together—big or small—can make a difference.
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