Safeway Launches Campaign to Support People with Disabilities and Encourage Businesses to Hire More Workers with Special Needs

On April 2, 2009, World Autism Awareness Day, Safeway Inc. (NYSE:SWY) will launch a month-long fundraising and awareness campaign to support two of the most respected organizations providing services and hope for people with disabilities: Easter Seals and Special Olympics.

The April campaign is designed to fund regional rehabilitation services and autism programs, job training grants, and athletes participating in Special Olympics games. For the second year running, Safeway is celebrating with its nearly 10,000 special needs employees and urging other businesses to provide job opportunities for this important part of the workforce.

"Safeway is a longtime supporter of organizations that provide opportunities and hope to people with physical and intellectual disabilities. It is an important part of our culture and our community outreach,” said Safeway Executive Vice President and Safeway Foundation Chair, Larree Renda. "We are proud to be an Easter Seals and Special Olympics partner as we understand how their work transforms the lives of their clients, many of whom are our valued employees and customers.”

The company will launch its April campaign at a Safeway store in Washington, D.C. and will be joined by a host of elected officials, sports figures and media personalities. Congressman Pete Sessions (Texas), Congressman Roy Blunt (Missouri), U.S. Olympic Gold medal-winning gymnasts Dominique Dawes and Carly Patterson and Ambassador Pete Romero will be part of the program, which begins with a Special Olympics athlete carrying the ceremonial Hope Torch into the store.

"For more than two decades, Safeway has been a partner and friend to Easter Seals and a strong advocate for disability rights and services,” said James E. Williams Jr., President and Chief Executive Officer, Easter Seals. "Aside from the critical financial support that funds valuable services, Safeway gives job opportunities and a means of living an independent life to people with disabilities. This is truly walking the talk.”

Each year Safeway dedicates April and August to helping people with disabilities by raising funds at its more than 1,700 Safeway, Vons, Pavilions, Dominick’s, Carrs, Randalls, Tom Thumb and Genuardi’s stores in the United States and Canada. To date, Safeway has raised and donated more than $110 million to support organizations helping people with disabilities such as Easter Seals, Special Olympics, the Muscular Dystrophy Association and Augie’s Quest.

"We’re honored to work with Safeway again and commend its dedication to enhancing the lives of people with disabilities,” said Special Olympics Chairman Tim Shriver. "Special Olympics has been creating unity in communities throughout the country, helping build acceptance and inclusion through sports in the lives of people with intellectual disabilities. This partnership shows how local businesses and communities can come together to create a place where each person, regardless of ability or disability, is accepted and welcomed and where every individual contributes to the strength and vibrancy of the whole.”

ABOUT SAFEWAY www.Safeway.com

Safeway Inc. is a Fortune 100 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. Safeway supports a broad range of charitable and community programs and in 2008 donated more than $248 million to important causes, such as cancer research, education, hunger relief and programs focused on assisting people with disabilities. Safeway is also one of the largest retail purchasers of wind energy, using 57 million kilowatt hours of wind energy, enough to power all 324 Safeway retail fuel stations, all stores in San Francisco, California and Boulder, Colorado, as well as all of the company headquarters and all corporate offices in Northern California. Safeway was the first major retailer to join the Chicago Climate Exchange, the world’s first and North America’s only legally binding GHG allowance trading system, and the California Climate Action Registry, which commits the company to reduce its carbon footprint by 6 percent from year 2000 levels.

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 nearly 90 years, we have been offering help, hope and answers 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 or http://autism.easterseals.com.

ABOUT SPECIAL OLYMPICS

Special Olympics is an international organization that changes lives by encouraging and empowering people with intellectual disabilities, promoting acceptance for all, and fostering communities of understanding and respect worldwide. Founded in 1968 by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the Special Olympics movement has grown from a few hundred athletes to nearly 3 million athletes in over 180 countries in all regions of the world providing year round sports training, athletic competition and other related programs. Special Olympics now takes place everyday changing the lives of people with intellectual disabilities in places like China and from regions like the Middle East to the community playgrounds and ball fields in every small neighborhood’s backyard. Special Olympics provides people with intellectual disabilities continuing opportunities to realize their potential, develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage and experience joy and friendship. Visit Special Olympics at www.specialolympics.org.