At Winn-Dixie, we’re getting better all the time — not only in our stores, where we provide customers with a better shopping experience, but also outside in the community, where we can make a difference by being a good neighbor.

Winn-Dixie has been giving back to the communities surrounding our stores for more than 80 years. Last year, we donated more than $2,600,000 to fund programs that benefit women and children, hunger, education and health. We are honored to be a part of your community and to be in the position to help others — because that’s what good neighbors do.

Neighbors Helping Neighbors is an important program that guides our efforts in each community. When natural disasters wreak havoc in the Southeast, our Neighbors Helping Neighbors program quickly delivers aid to those who need it most. Donations from customers go directly to the American Red Cross, which in turn provides food, water and other necessities to victims.

Youth At Play provides monetary and in-kind donations to community sports teams, with the goal of improving programs that teach children teamwork and the importance of making healthy choices. Each of our stores across the Southeast has a budget set aside for them to sponsor school sports teams and community sports organizations. After all, our stores are in the heart of the neighborhoods we serve and they see firsthand what matters to our customers and our communities. To request sponsorship of your youth sports team, please visit the Winn-Dixie store director where you shop.

Winn-Dixie's A Team rewards teachers and middle school students for their hard work in academics, good attendance and overall attitude. For each of the Jacksonville Jaguars home games this season, Winn-Dixie will provide family 4 packs of tickets to students and two-packs to teachers in Duval, St. Johns, Clay, Flagler, Baker, Nassau and Putman counties.

Download Foundation Grant Guidelines and Application

For several years, the Winn-Dixie Foundation has underwritten the St. Vincent’s Medical Center Breast Health Advocate program. The Breast Health Advocate provides support and advice to women on the First Coast who have been diagnosed with breast cancer at St. Vincent’s Medical Center. The Advocate is able to help women navigate the difficult journey of a breast cancer diagnosis. She provides educational and technical support but more importantly, she is always available to support women with emotional or psychosocial needs.

The Milk-Bone Canine Heroes Program™ is part of an ongoing effort to support local law enforcement and security preparedness nationwide. The program helps law enforcement agencies add to or maintain canine units at no cost to tax-paying citizens and has sponsored more than 700 police and service dogs in communities across the country since 1997. Winn-Dixie and Milkbone have donated a total of 26 canines to police departments throughout our operating area since beginning the partnership in 1997. Working together, we can make a difference one dog at a time!

In a partnership between Kellogg’s and Winn-Dixie, a program was designed to help three families a year realize their dreams of home ownership. For every two Kellogg's, Keebler, Cheez It, Eggo, or Kashi products purchased in a 6 week promotional period at Winn-Dixie, Kellogg’s donates .25 cents up to $50,000 towards building a Habitat house in a designated area. Currently, Winn-Dixie and Kellogg’s have built a total of 8 homes in the Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana markets. Still under construction is one house in Alabama, with yet another three homes planned for Jacksonville, Louisiana, and the Gulf Coast in the later part of 2008.

At Winn-Dixie, giving back to the neighborhoods we serve is important to us, especially at the holidays. That’s why we have teamed with the Palm Beach County Community Food Alliance, an initiative of United Way of Palm Beach County, WPEC News 12, Wachovia Bank and the Palm Beach Kennel Club on Project Thanksgiving – a joint effort to provide good holiday meals for needy families in our community.

Project Thanksgiving was established in 1991 to provide holiday turkeys to less fortunate people in WPEC News 12’s viewing area which includes Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River and Okeechobee counties in South Florida.

Through the generous contributions of viewers and sponsors, Project Thanksgiving has raised a total of $1,762,636 for families in need.

Winn-Dixie has partnered with the Florida Department of Education to promote the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) for the past two years.

The SFSP was established to ensure that children in needy areas continue to receive a nutritious meal during school vacations. Free meals are provided to all children at approved “open” or “enrolled” SFSP sites in areas with significant concentrations of low-income children.

Winn-Dixie is very proud of this partnership as it is a great example of how we’re getting better all the time at serving the needs of our communities.

In 1984, Winn-Dixie and the American Cancer Society (ACS) teamed up to create Hope Lodge, a special "home away from home" lodge for cancer patients and their families traveling away from home during outpatient treatments. From this original concept, three such Hope Lodges have been built where patients and family members may stay at no cost in a nurturing home-like residential environment. The first ACS/Winn-Dixie Hope Lodge opened its doors near Shands Medical Center in Gainesville, Florida, in June 1986. ACS/Winn-Dixie Hope Lodges opened in Miami in 1992 and in Atlanta in 1998.

The story of the Hope Lodges is a story of volunteers working together to achieve a wonderful goal. When the ACS approached Winn-Dixie to fund the idea, we went to our associates and pledged that the Winn-Dixie Stores Foundation would match their contributions dollar for dollar. Our associates came through, and the result is a special place where patients and their families can relax on their own or share their experiences with other patients and their families instead of checking into a lonely hotel room.

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan recognized the Hope Lodge program by awarding Winn-Dixie and our associates the Presidential Award for Private Sector Initiatives.

Each ACS/Winn-Dixie Hope Lodge is located near a cancer outpatient treatment facility. Patients and their families are admitted at no charge on a first-come, first-served basis according to the treatment start date. A patient may bring one family member or friend, and children may bring two adults. All ages are welcome. Each Hope Lodge has individual suites, plus communal areas including a dining and kitchen area. Volunteers provide many Hope Lodge services to assist the resident manager and assistants on staff. Operating costs are paid from contributions to the ACS or to the individual facility.

For information on how to apply for admission and other Hope Lodge policies, please contact your local ACS chapter.

In 1944, the Winn-Dixie Foundation was created to assist local non-profit organizations. The Foundation has supported many deserving groups during the past 60 years, with grants to local non-profit organizations in those areas which focus on hunger, women and children, health and education initiatives. For information on the Winn-Dixie Foundation’s guidelines and procedures, please click here.

Winn-Dixie has been supporting the civic and charitable efforts of our associates and customers since the beginning in 1925. Being a good corporate citizen and a good neighbor in the communities in which we operate has been a part of Winn-Dixie's philosophy and commitment. Our focus is on Health, Women and Children, Education and Hunger. Please contact your local store director to see if he/she can assist your organization with a donation through Winn-Dixie's Grassroots Program. The Grassroots Program empowers the local store managers with the ability to make donations to various organizations with funds available in the form of gift cards. Please remember that your donation request must meet our focus outlined in the above paragraph and that you must make your request in writing on your organization's letterhead to your local store manager. Receipt of a donation is contingent on whether or not the local store still has the funds available in the budget.

If your donation request is too large to be handled through the Grassroots Program or if you are interested in submitting sponsorship materials to Winn-Dixie Stores to review, please mail your proposals to:

Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc. Neighborhood Marketing -- Donations
5050 Edgewood Court
P.O. Box B
Jacksonville, FL 32203