Corporate Social Responsibility Report - Ahold

Community engagementOur approachCommunity involvement and charitablegiving are part of our customer focus.As active members of the communitieswe serve, we have the means andthe responsibility to make a differencein the lives of our stakeholders.We listen to our customers and are committed to supportingcauses that they, as well as our employees and otherstakeholders, believe are important. We work to be active,contributing members of society, particularly the localcommunities where our stores are located. To make the mostimpact, we focus on our strengths as a food retailer, our storelocations, which are the focal points of many communities,and on our employees’ expertise on food-related topics.Developing insightIn all of our markets our stores are an integral part of thecommunity. Our employees work in the neighborhoods weserve, and many customers may visit our stores several timesa week. These close ties enable us to appreciate local needs.Our operating companies have a trackrecord in choosing the right causes andputting programs in place to effectivelybenefit stakeholders.Our approach to community engagement has historicallydiffered in our European and U.S. markets. The charitable givingaspect of community engagement has been more prevalent inthe United States, where government social welfare programsare not as comprehensive as in many of our European markets.More consumers than ever before, particularly in the UnitedStates, expect companies to be good corporate citizens in thecommunities in which they operate. A recent cause-relatedsurvey 1 found that more than 90% of U.S. consumers say it isimportant for companies to support local causes and charities.1PR Week/Barkley PR Cause Survey 2007HighlightsHealth in communitiesAlbert Heijn raised more than 100,000 forcancer research in just one week ⁄page 46A place to call homeAlbert stores raised a record sum of more than300,000 in 2007 to help needy children ⁄page 44Top grades for school rewardsGiant’s A+ School Rewards program celebrated itsmost successful year ever, with over 1.2 milliondonated to support education ⁄page 43Important to customers means important to usDuring breast cancer awareness month, ICA’s“pink” fundraising campaign raised 650,000⁄page 47Combatting childhood cancerStop & Shop/Giant-Landover reached its 2007goal of raising almost 4 million to fight childhoodcancer ⁄page 4642Ahold CSR Report 2007