At Safeway, we know that families come in all shapes and sizes. For us, family encompasses our store, our colleagues, our community, and without a doubt, our customers. The employees at Kensington Safeway know first-hand the meaningful connections formed with our customers who become family.

Meredith Helgeson has shopped at Kensington Safeway since her university days in 1975. Meredith stops by the store every Friday morning, and when she isn’t spotted, the Safeway team wonders where she may be. In her 44 years of patronage, Meredith has connected with many Kensington employees who have come and gone, but the store’s long-standing commitment to exceptional customer service keeps her coming back.

In 2015, the Kensington team was saddened to hear of Meredith’s stage 4 cancer diagnoses. The cancer was idiopathic in nature, meaning no known cause. However, after 47 chemo treatments and a major surgery to remove six organs, Meredith’s grace, strength and courage continued to shine.

Since 2016, Meredith has been receiving treatment at the Tom Baker Cancer Center in Calgary. After receiving a holiday gift bag in 2018, Meredith was so truly touched that she set out on a mission to pay it forward to other cancer patients. Meredith launched a “Chemo Day Go Bag” project, providing a kit of must-have items to cancer patients receiving treatment.

When contemplating where to source quality products for her bags, Meredith knew just who to reach out to – the team of friendly faces at her Kensington Safeway store. Meredith approached Store Manager, Leslie Robb, to request Safeway’s support in offering a product discount on hand cream, knowing that cancer patients often suffer from dry skin. When given the opportunity to support, Leslie didn’t hesitate to jump on board!

“Community is very important to our team,” said Leslie. “We know many customers by name, and many customers know us by name. We call Kensington Safeway ‘our family’. It’s reflected in how we treat each other and how we treat our customers.”

We’re so proud to celebrate the Kensington Safeway team for their outstanding commitment to serving our customers and fostering your local community. To this day, Meredith makes sure to take time to chat with the many Safeway team members that she has come to know at Kensington, and with your support, her Chemo Day Go Bag project will run throughout the entirety of 2019.

While one good deed may seem small, the meaningful every day acts of the entire Safeway network never go unnoticed, and together, leave a lasting impact on communities near and far.