Steamboat Pilot & Today

Here's some food for thought: Each one of us can promote thought by buying food.

For eight years now, a largely unnoticed program has provided some $75,000 to local schools. The money comes from grocery stores that pass along a portion of what some customers pay them.

At Safeway, shoppers use grocery certificates that can be bought at any Steamboat school. The certificates are used like money, and 5 percent of each sale goes to the school the shopper designates. Because of the program, Safeway recently sent a check for more than $2,400 to Steamboat Middle School.

City Market has a similar program using its red value card. Grocery shoppers can take their City Market card to any local school and register it. Then, every time the card is used, a percentage of the sales are earmarked for the school. City

Market bases its percentage on volumes, but store representatives say it comes out to about 5 percent as well.

The grocery money has paid for a variety of

educational programs over the years. At the

elementary schools, for example, they've brought

in songwriters and authors that the regular budget couldn't afford.

This community has again and again proven its commitment to schoolchildren. In November 1998, voters approved a $25 million plan to upgrade Steamboat High and other schools in the RE-2

district. The following November, the electorate OK'd another extension of the half-cent sales tax that helps pay for technology improvements and aids the schools in dealing with growth challenges.

To be sure, most of the voting residents of Steamboat Springs have decided that digging a little deeper into their pocketbooks to help schools is the right thing to do.

That's why we're sure the grocery program would be an even bigger success if more people took the time to use it.

We've found over the years that one of the ways to get people to do something is to make it easy.

The grocery program does that.

Whether you're a Safeway shopper or a City Market customer, all you have to do is stop by

the school you'd like to help and purchase some grocery certificates or register your value card.

That's pretty easy.

The next step is buying groceries. While that may not be easy to do at 4:30 p.m. during ski season, we all get around to it eventually.

So you'll be buying groceries that benefit

education food for thought.

And in this case, easy does it.